Africa-Press – Malawi. A conman trading as a prophet connived with with an owner of a school premises in Blantyre, where Maranatha Academy leased for 10 years and duly paid K240 million to dupe former deputy Speaker of Parliament and erstwhile cabinet minister, Esther Mcheka-Chilenje a whooping K15 million under the pretext that she will occupy the premises.
However, the former Nsanje North Member of Parliament, Mcheka-Chilenje, who runs a private school, has had a rude awakening and a shock of her life after realising that a ‘Man of God’ she trusted and fondly called ‘son’ had actually tricked her and robbed her a cool K15 million, which borrowed from the loan sharks (a katapira) at a higher interest rate.
Mcheka-Chilenje, a former DPP member of Parliament, who stood later as an independent candidate, narrowly lost her Nsanje North Parliamentary seat to MCP’s Enock Chizuzu in a court-sanctioned by-election as she got a total of 8,081 votes against the latter who amassed 9,866 votes.
However, Nyasa Times has established that the self-declared prophet, Andrew Kambeja and his accomplice in the matter, Elvis Nserebo, owner of a school premises in Blantyre, (formerly Matindi Private Secondary School) a place which used to house the defunct Matindi Private Schools told the unsuspecting Mcheka-Chilenje that if she pays K15 million she would take the school premises where Maranatha Academy operates.
Ironically, the school premises Kambeja promised Mcheka-Chilenje to take is under dispute as Maranatha Academy has obtained an injunction against Nserebo from selling the premises as they are said to have paid a total sum of K240 million in rentals and leased the premises for 10 years in 2018.
In an audio, which has gone viral and trending on social media has Mcheka-Chilenje pleading with Prophet Kambeja to give her back her K15 million back and repeatedly saying that she trusted him as a man of God only for him to connive with Nserebo to force her borrow the money with high interest rate in order for her to acquire the property for her school.
“I trusted you, son, as a man of God but you have duped me. I want my money. I used my property as a collateral for me to obtain the loan.
“Please, give me my money back. God will punish you. As a man of God you shouldn’t be doing this. Give me back my money or else, I will go to my lawyers,” Mcheka-Chilenje pleads in the audio to which the prophet is heard saying yes mum to everything.
In the audio, Mcheka-Chilenje emphasised that God will punish the Man of God because he uses his position to dupe innocent people adding that she needed her money paid or she will involved her lawyers.
When contacted Mcheka-Chilenje did not pick up the phone and when a text messages were sent to her through WhatsApp and indicated that she saw and read them, she ignored the messages and did not respond. Prophet Kambeja cut the phone after a Nyasa Times reporter introduced the subject matter to him.
This is a huge sigh of relief as Maranatha Academy is now vindicated following a court injunction which was prayed to the court to stop Nserebo from closing Matindi Premises for Maranatha Boys Academy to continue operating at the premises.
In trying to sell the premises to Blantyre Synod, Nserebo alleged that Maranatha failed to pay rent for the premises, an assertion that Maranatha through the owner, Ernest Kaonga dismissed as blatant lies, saying Maranatha Academy and Nserebo has a legally binding contract agreement and that they leased the premises for a 10 years from 2018.
Some weeks ago, Nserebo used Sheriffs to chase Maranatha Academy from the premises, a situation that forced Maranatha Academy to look for new premises to accommodate the students.
In an interview Maranatha Academy Managing Director Ernest Kaonga said he called Mcheka-Chilenje and warned her against paying any money for the premises.
Said Kaonga: “If only she listened to me, she wouldn’t have been robbed. I called to warn her but she trusted the wrong people. I tried to explain to her that there is an injunction in place so at this point it was pointless for her to get involved where the matter was in court,” said Kaonga.
