By Vincent Gunde
Four Regions Organization says it is set to sue Mzuzu Prison over its Warders who received money from it to give Karonga based rights activist Lyton Mangochi who was arrested in Karonga and brought to Mzuzu Prison awaiting for prosecutions over the charge of insulting President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera and the MCP.
Mangochi was arrested by six police Detectives who travelled all the way from Area 30 in Lilongwe to Karonga in a midnight operation on the night of the 19th January, 2025, they arrested him in his pajamas and took him to Kaporo Police Unit in Karongsa and to Mzuzu Prison.
The Magistrate court in Mzuzu granted Mangochi bail and he disclosed to people that came to support him which included DPP and UTM members complaining that Prison Warders of Mzuzu Prison stole his money.
Mangochi gave the Warders 14 days to give back his money and to this day, he has not received the money prompting the Four Regions Organization to make follow-ups of their money by suing Mzuzu Prison over its Warders to retain back stolen money.
Speaking through Nkhanga zaona Programme on Limpopo FM. the Radios programme producer Comrade Mtanyiwa said it is sad that while other people are giving to those that are in dire need, some other people are having an added advantage over the same.
Mtanyiwa said what happened to Mangochi’s money is a tip of an iceberg that money and food items which are being donated to prisoners and inmates do not reach the intended beneficiaries and they end up being shared amongst the officials themselves.
He said Prisons are not only accommodating thieves claiming that others are serving prison sentences for mistaken identities, failing to express themselves before presiding Magistrates, and giving false evidence not knowing that in the end, they are hanging themselves.
Comrade Mtanyiwa appealed to Prison Warders to wear human faces that looking after prisoners as their bosses is not a warrant that they are above them advising them to discharge their duties in a professional way bearing in mind that they are servant leaders.
“Prisoners are human beings, let’s treat them with human faces and not as animals, give them what is for them and not sharing amongst officers themselves what is for them,” he said.
On his release from police custody in Mzuzu, Mangochi said police officers at Kaporo Police Station stole his K3,000 but after complaining, he was given back his money.
