The Malawi Police in Lilongwe are keeping in custody Ignatius Kamwanje over a Facebook post which he alleged that money was being stolen from customers’ accounts at National Bank of Malawi (NBM) plc.

Kamwanje was arrested Wednesday, April 28, 2021 morning following a complaint lodged by NBM plc.

Kamwanje wrote unverified stories of his Facebook page claiming that NBM plc employees were involved in an ‘inside cartel’ to steal money from customers’ accounts and that so far four employees had been arrested because of the issue.

The Lilongwe based World Vision of Malawi employee first wrote the story on his Facebook wall on March 1, 2021 that his relative had his MK8.7 million stolen at NBM with the help of the bank employees.

He wrote again on 27th March 2021 where he alleged that there were four cases at the courts and that others are in jail because of issue.

“Those with National Bank accounts, check your balances regularly…ndalama zikutengedwa mma accounts. Yesterday about 4 cases at the court. Surprisingly it’s an inside cartel bcz others are in jail as I am talking. The relative whom I posted a story on my page and whose 2.8 million went missing with a balance of about MK5.7 kulibe kalikonse..,” reads part of his post.

Insiders said after police investigated the issue following a complaint from the bank, they found that no one from the bank had been arrested in connection with the issue that Kamwanje was alleging or any other issue connected to missing customers’ money and that is why they invited Kamwanje to Lilongwe Police station to explain.

One social media commentator cautioned people to be responsible on social media.

“I think this is a big lesson to everyone, people should be responsible on what they post on social media, otherwise these are the consequences,” he said.