Shepherd Bushiri: “MY RIGHT TO LIFE IS MORE IMPORTANT…”

Fugitive Malawian pastor, Shepherd Bushiri, has said he doesn’t mind losing his palatial home in South Africa after a magistrate ordered it to be seized.

“My right to life is more important than any asset in this world,” the self-declared prophet said in a Facebook post.

A magistrate had ordered Bushiri and his wife, Mary, to hand over the title deed of the South African property when they were granted bail on charges of money laundering and fraud.

The couple deny the charges.

It emerged last week that they had fled to their home country of Malawi. The pastor said he had made a “tactical withdrawal” because they feared for their lives.

The home, which is near the capital, Pretoria, is valued at 5.5m South African rand ($350,000: £260,000), according to local media.

South Africa has issued an arrest warrant for the couple, and wants Malawi to extradite them.

EFCC files additional ‘evidence’ against Malabu Oil in money laundering case

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday filed additional proof of evidence against Malabu Oil & Gas Limited before Justice I.E. Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja in the alleged money laundering case involving the company to the tune of $875,740,000.

Prosecution counsel, Bala Sanga had at the sitting announced the readiness of the prosecution to proceed with the day’s business as well as the presence of Prosecution Witness One (PW1), Temitope Erinlomo in court.

He further informed the court of the filing of additional proof of evidence against the first defendant, Malabu Oil & Gas Limited, which he said was not to complicate the matter before the court but for further assistance to the court to reach its conclusions.

However, defence counsel declined cross-examination of the witness on account of the prosecution’s new proof of evidence, which the defence team said was served on them at a short notice, arguing that they needed no less than 24 hours to go through the application.

They further submitted that it was beyond the prosecution to determine whether the additional proof of evidence will be helpful in the matter or not.

Justice Ekwo adjourned the matter till November 28, 2020 for continuation of trial.

The prosecution had on September 10, 2020, concluded its evidence-in-chief with PW1, giving way to the defence to proceed with the cross-examination of the witness.