Malawi’s three cabinet ministers have allegedly been implicated in the Petro bombing of the country’s top human rights activist Timothy Mtambo last night.
Thugs invaded the house of Mtambo who is also Chairperson of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) around 2 AM local time in the capital Lilongwe, and threw three Petro bombs in his house fence, burning his car y and part of the house in the process.
Mtambo and his family members, however, managed to escape the incident.
The HRDC has been championing the post-election protests to force Jane Ansa, Chairperson of the Malawi Electoral Commission to resign for allegedly mismanaging the May, Elections presidential results.
Speaking at an emergency press conference held in Lilongwe on Thursday, one of the HRDC officials MacDonald Sembereka named Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Ben Phiri, Minister of Homeland Security Nicholas Dausi and a Deputy Minister Charls Mchacha.
Sembereka said the trip had been meeting at Mchacha’s house in Lilongwe where they had been planning for the attack.
“We can surely reveal that those attacked Mtambo are cadets from the ruling DPP, and the whole plan was masterminded by the three Ministers,” he alleged.
Gift Trapence, the Coalition Vice Chairperson alleged at the press conference that Mtambo and the coalition members had been receiving death threats from the DPP thugs for a while for championing the protests and criticising Mutharika’s administration over corruption and other maladministrations.
“We have evidence that this is by the DPP and this is not their first time,” he said, ” They have been torching people’s cars in Mangochi, beating people and doing all sorts of evils.”
But the Dausi who is also the DPP spokesperson has refuted the allegations and claimed that the governing party is a peace-loving party.
“If they know the suspects let them report to police,” said Dausi whose Ministry controls the Malawi Police Service.
Last year Mtambo’s organisation Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation’s office was Petro bombed by unknown thugs who severely injured it’s the guard.
