Presidential advisor on parliamentary affairs Uladi Mussa has dismissed as “fake news” social media reports which had suggested that he had resigned, with immediate effect amid reports that donors have been questioning his appointments following his ongoing corruption court case.
Uladi Mussa: I have not resigned
The reports cite the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) saying Mussa has ceased to perform duties of presidential advisor on parliamentary affairs.
But Mussa , whom Mutharika on June 19 appointed as his special adviser of parliamentary affairs and also serves as governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice-president for the Central Region, told Nyasa Times on Monday that the reports were “total frabrication” and utterly “fake news”.
He said: “I have not resigned. It is not true. I heard from some people that I had resigned.”
Mussa cautioned people from believing anything they read on social media and sharing matrials on WhatsApp or Telegram.
Mussa is linked to a passport and citizenship scandal that shocked the country as he is answering charges of aiding about 55 foreign nationals from Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda to illegally obtain Malawian passports and business permits when he served as minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security in the Cabinet of former president Joyce Banda in 2013.
Recently, the United States of America (USA) banned the President’s aide and his spouse for his alleged “involvement in significant corruption”.
The US Embassy in Lilongwe said in July that Mussa’s designation was made under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Act of 2019 which empowers the Secretary of State where there is “credible information that foreign officials have been involved in significant corruption or gross violations of human rights” to be ineligible for entry into USA.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Mussa in March 2017 on charges of negligence and abuse of office, but Mussa, who was then serving as interim leader of People’s Party (PP), said at the time that his arrest was politically-motivated.
He handed himself to the ACB after reports surfaced that the bureau wanted to arrest him in relation to the granting of citizenship and passports.
