Maravi

Police collect Changwe’s bounced cheque

Police collect Changwe’s bounced cheque
By George Chellah
Tue 03 Aug. 2010, 04:01 CAT

POLICE in Kabwe have collected an original copy of the bounced cheque which was issued by gender and development deputy minister Lucy Changwe. Changwe, who is also Mkushi North MMD member of parliament, bounced a K10 million cheque in a house purchase transaction.

Musonda, the owner of the property in question, disclosed that he was last week summoned to the Central Province police divisional headquarters in Kabwe.

“The divisional criminal investigations officer, a Mr Bwalya, summoned me to Kabwe. They wanted the original cheque which bounced. I was in Kabwe on Monday last week but I didn’t give them the bounced cheque on Monday because I didn’t have it. I only gave them the following day on Tuesday,” Musonda said.

“While I was in the office at police headquarters in Kabwe, Mr Bwalya phoned and gave instructions that one of the officers, Mr Simunji, should get a warrant to be signed by the magistrate so that they can go to the bank and retrieve the statement for May when the cheque was deposited.

“But Mr Simunji later on told Mr Bwalya that there were fresh developments because Lucy Changwe was in Mkushi the other weekend and she was telling them that ‘Musonda sold me the house which doesn’t belong to him, so I want to report him for obtaining money by false pretence.’”

Musonda said Changwe told the police that the plot belonged to a Mr Nsama, who had been paying ground rates for some time.

“Then Mr Bwalya asked Mr Simunji that ‘who built the house?’ And Simunji responded that it’s Mr Musonda who built the house. That’s when Mr Bwalya asked that ‘then what’s the problem? Mr Bwalya even asked me whose house it was, and I told him that it was mine,” Musonda said.

“That’s when Mr Bwalya told Simunji that the issue at hand is that of the dishonoured cheque. I handed over the original cheque and all the other documents on Tuesday last week to the divisional criminal investigations officer in Kabwe.”

Musonda dismissed Changwe’s claims over the ownership of the house.

“Everyone knows that that house is mine, including Lucy Changwe herself. As a senior councillor in the council, she knows what I went through to build that house. So it’s interesting that she can be saying that about a house, which she even knows that it’s mine,” Musonda said.

Musonda recently reported Changwe to the police for bouncing a cheque. He said he reported Changwe to police despite her paying him the money because bouncing a cheque was a criminal.

Former defence minister George Mpombo was recently arrested and prosecuted for bouncing a cheque worth K10 million, and judgment in the matter is set for this Friday.

Mpombo paid back the money in cash to Terence Findlay but police proceeded to arrest him for bouncing a cheque despite clearing the debt.

Labels: CORRUPTION, LUCY CHANGWE

posted by MrK @ 3:50 AM