Former president Joyce Banda has told a mass rally she held at Domasi in Zomba that she is not scared of being arrested, arguing that she is free of any wrong-doing during her two-year tenure.<\/p>\n
Speaking to a crowd of excited supporters dressed in People\u2019s Party (PP) orange colours, Banda said the Baker Tilly audit report and the Anti- Corruption Bureau cleared her of any involvement in the infamous plunder of public resources dubbed Cashgate which was discovered during her time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am telling you this because I know you were worried about me. What you should know is that I am not scared. If they want, they should come and arrest me. But I am not wrong. If people are stealing from the people that I love, they should go to prison,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Banda said in July last year, she wrote the Office of the President and Cabinet that she was ready to return from her self-imposed exile. To her surprise, she said, the police issued a statement that they had a warrant of arrest for her in connection with Cashgate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know why they did that but the moment I said I was coming back they issued that press release that they would arrest me. I have never received the warrant. I have just heard that they have that warrant of arrest for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The former president said this country needs special prayers arguing that a lot of strange things are happening which in her opinion only prayers can heal and cleanse the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say this with no fear of contradiction and apologies: this country needs healing. This country is on fire. It is burning. There is so much animosity, pain, hatred so many calamities; people murdering each other, albinos being killed\u2026 I don\u2019t want to blame anybody. I just think the whole country needs healing. This nation needs special prayers,\u201d Banda said.<\/p>\n
On her political career, Banda insisted that she has to consult party members and touch base with what has been going on in the country during the four years she was away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will not comment anything on politics because I have just arrived in the country. I need to consult. I work with a team. I don\u2019t do things or make decisions by myself. So, when the National Executive Committee (Nec) meets, I will be able to comment on the matter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
PP Secretary General, Ibrahim Matola, said he was happy that the former president and leader of the PP is back in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people left the party thinking it was dead. PP does not belong to one person. These people you see here are the ones that held PP in your absence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Banda left the country in 2014 after losing the presidential elections to President Peter Mutharika.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former president Joyce Banda has told a mass rally she held at Domasi in Zomba that she is not scared of being arrested, arguing that she is free of any wrong-doing during her two-year tenure. Speaking to a crowd of excited supporters dressed in People\u2019s Party (PP) orange colours, Banda said the Baker Tilly audit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":64652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64653,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64647\/revisions\/64653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}