Africa-Press – Malawi. National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) former deputy chief executive officer Helen Buluma Tuesday struggled to produce phone recordings for evidence in a case in which former presidential aide Chris Chaima Banda, former minister of Energy Newton Kambala and Alliance for Democracy president Enoch Chihana are accused of influencing the awarding of fuel contracts at Nocma.
Lilongwe Chief Resident Magistrate Madalitso Chimwaza presided over the matter yesterday, when the defence continued cross-examining Buluma. The matter was adjourned in the morning after a disagreement erupted between the defence and State over the use of phone recordings that were tendered in court as part of the evidence.
Defence lawyers demanded that Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) lawyers bring to court the mobile phone which Buluma used to record conversations that are being used as evidence in court.
The defence asked for the mobile phone, saying it needed the gadget for use during cross-examination of Buluma. ACB lawyers complied with the court order and submitted the mobile phone that is believed to have been used in recording conversations.
THEU—The phone had three recordingsHowever, when defence lawyer Bright Theu started accessing what was in the phone to cross-examine Buluma, the ACB protested, saying inspection of the phone was done already.
ACB Director General Martha Chizuma said the court had earlier ordered that the phone be checked in the presence of the defence, State and information technology experts for both parties. In an interview, defence lawyer Theu said the defence suspected that the recordings were tampered with before being presented to the court.
Theu said Buluma had earlier told the court that she first recorded Chaima Banda at a meeting that was held at the Treasury and that the last recorded conversation was when she was with Kambala.
“But when the recordings were played in court, it was noted that the order was not like that. The recordings indicated that Buluma first recorded Chaima, Kambala and the Treasury meeting, in that order.
“And, going through the recordings, they showed that the phone had three recordings that started from number eight to 10. When we wanted to know where recordings from one to seven were, Buluma seemed not to know what happened,” Theu said.
But in a cross-examination, Buluma told the court that the phone was with the ACB and that, as such, she could not tell if it was tampered with or not. She told the court that she could not remember properly the time she was recording and saving the audios.
“I wouldn’t know if the phone was tampered with as I haven’t been using it since the ACB took it as part of evidence. But all I know is that my children would sometimes use the phone when it was in my possession [but my children are people] who may or may not have tampered with the phone,” Buluma told the court.
Chizuma was not available to speak to the media after court proceedings. Chimwaza has since adjourned the matter to today, when the defence would continue to cross-examine Buluma
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