Peter Mulamba is said to be in the United Kingdom, Nation Online has learnt.
Investigations by the paper reveal that Mulamba is staying with a daughter in Nottingham.
A source at the Malawi Embassy in London confided that the High Commission has been informed about his whereabouts in Nottingham.
“We have established that he drove to Zimbabwe on Friday and flew from Harare to London where he was received by his daughter,” said the source.
Nation Online tried to check with UK’s Director of Border Control Unit Chris Jacque on whether Mulamba used his name when entering the country.
But the Unit declined to comment, saying they do not deal with the press directly.
Mulamba, a former Admarc deputy general manager, disappeared on Friday, September, 3, 2004, after reportedly asking his former wife and friends to look after his children.
Home Affairs Minister Uladi Mussa, who earlier said police believed Mulamba might have committed suicide, on Thursday changed his statement and said police have not found the body and are still searching.
Mussa told The Nation newspaper in an interview on Thursday that Police are searching for Mulamba in the Sadc region and in Europe. “That’s all I can tell you at the moment. We are searching for him all over,” Mussa said when asked if any policemen have been deployed in London.
The Attorney General Ralph Kasambara on Friday also declined to be drawn into commenting on the whereabouts of Mulamba. “I can’t comment on that, but I was surprised to hear that Mulamba is the key witness. He cannot be. He is a co-accused and not a state witness in the Admarc case. “Police were looking at four possibilities in the search. He might have committed suicide, or been killed, abducted or he might have run away because of his suspected role at Admarc when he was general manager in charge of finance,” Kasambara said.
This week in Parliament, Mussa said Mulamba’s body has not been found, contrary to reports that he died.
The minister explained that on Friday, September, 3, 2004, Mulamba asked his Operations Manager Spencer Mkandawire to collect for him his passport and driving licence before he disappeared.
Meanwhile, the Nation has established that there is no immigration record of Mulamba having crossed the border through Mwanza on Friday or Saturday.
The Nation has also established that the initial search for Mulamba in Chikwawa, where his car was found, proved futile. Police had borrowed the District Commissioner’s boat for a river scan in the hope of finding a floating body.
Local sources in Chikwawa have confirmed the place where the vehicle was abandoned, along the road near Kamuzu Bridge, about seven kilometres from Thabwa Road Block.
Billiat Anderson, who owns a drinking place at Thabwa road block, said the vehicle was found parked along the road about 100 metres near Kamuzu Bridge at around 11pm. “This place is called Domasi. It is a place associated with very bad reports as well. The police came in the morning and rowed the vehicle. I don’t know where they took it but the vehicle had one glass slightly opened,” he said.
An inside source at Chikwawa Police Station confirmed that the vehicle was found at the same place which is near a graveyard. “When we got there we found a wallet which contained a K500 note, a National Bank ATM card and his identity. We were instructed to take finger prints from the steering wheel which the headquarters is working on at the moment to find out if it was Mulamba himself who was driving the time the vehicle was abandoned.”
“We went to hunt for Mulamba’s body in the Shire River because local people speculated that his body may have been thrown into the river. We had a long search from 8 am to 3.30 pm but we failed to find him,” he said.
District Commissioner for Chikwawa Lawrence Makonokaya on Friday confirmed that police hired a boat from his office but said he was not aware of the outcome of the search in the Shire River.
Chikwawa Police referred the matter to headquarters, where spokesperson Willie Mwaluka said he needed time to find out whether police had divers when they launched the search.