Commission yet to release Lule report
A commission of enquiry which Malawi Police Service (MPS) instituted to investigate circumstances that led to the death of the late Buleya Lule while in police custody, has not released a report on the issue months after it commenced its investigations.
The delay has not pleased Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi (Apam).
Lule was among the key suspects that the police arrested following the abduction of Goodson Fanizo Makanjira, a boy with albinism in Dedza in February 2019.
A postmortem report revealed that he was tortured to death.
On Monday, Apam officials met Presidential Adviser on civil society organisations (CSOs), Mabvuto Bamusi, in Lilongwe to discuss the pertinent issues affecting them, including the delay in the release of the reports.
Apam National Coordinator, Overstone Kondowe, said they were worried that up to now, the report has not been released.
“We had the commission of enquiry on deaths of people with albinism which was commissioned by President Peter Mutharika and we do not have any report from that exercise. We also had an enquiry on the suspicious death on Buleya Lule and the Malawi Police Service took a lead on that and we do not have any report. These are the issues that prompted our meeting,” he said.
Bamusi said he will report to Mutharika and get back with feedback to Apam next month.
“What is remaining is for the report to be made available to Apam and I will inform the President about this call and will meet again to provide them any update on the matter,” he said.
Bamusi said he was glad that currently, attacks on people with albinism have declined.
Presenting findings of the commission of Malawi Human Rights early May, Commissioner Martha Chizuma said the Inspector General (IG) of Police should urgently institute criminal investigations on all police officers who arrested the victim on February 18 2019 and held him for interrogation, to determine the role they played, if at all, leading to the death of the victim.
National Police publicist, James Kadadzera, has since said the police will make public findings of the enquiry of the task force which was instituted to investigate the matter once it finalises their enquiry.
