Malawi Congress Party (MCP) President Muhammad Sidik Mia has accused President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika of using State agencies such as the Malawi Police Service (MPS) to intimidate opposition political parties, saying this will not work.
Sidik Mia said this in reference to the incident which happened on Thursday where Police fired teargas to disperse people at an improptu meeting he conducted at Blantyre curio art market (Paziboli-boli).
Mia met curio vendors at their business premises, but before he spoke police came and fired teargas although there was no form of violence at the gathering.
Writing on his official facebook page, Mia questioned the police conduct.
“My tour was successful at Blantyre flea market only to be greeted by teargas at Blantyre curio art market (Paziboli-boli). What is surprising is that the police did not even have the courtesy to warn me and my team to leave the place.
“Assuming they warned us, I assure you that I would have acted according to their instructions as I am a law abiding citizen but what they did was so retrogressive and unfortunate as my private tour didn’t in any way disturb public peace and order. The environment was peaceful, the vendors I interacted with were peaceful and all was fantastic only to be ambushed by the Police,” wrote Mia.
He added: “Friends, some people say that the Police Service, has of late, been infiltrated by the ruling DPP cadets. With such unfortunate incident as it happened to me yesterday, one cannot help but perhaps to lend credence to such allegations for if the Police were real professionals and not DPP cadets, they would have at least warn us to leave the place and their firing teargas canisters at us would have been justified in the event that we resisted their order to leave the place. This never happened.”
Mia accused Mutharika of turning the country to a Police State.
“We therefore wish to make it categorically clear that neither teargas nor live bullets will intimidate us in our struggle to liberate the country from these very few ruling elites who have plundered our country and are determined to sustain their grip on power based on tribalism, regionalism, cronyism and the abuse of state organs to victimize the opposition.
“Friends, we know for a fact that the wheels of change are fast moving and make no mistake about it, the system will soon be rebooted and a better Malawi for all is what the Chakwera administration will strive to deliver once we take over next year,” added Mia.
Meanwhile police are yet to comment on the matter.
