National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) board on Friday said police have recovered at least 600 bags of maize and arrested a suspected mastermind behind the missing maize trucks.

Speaking at a press briefing in Lilongwe on Friday, NFRA board chairperson Denis Kalekeni said the truck carrying the 600 bags of maize was recovered in Kasungu last week.

He said the development means the number of missing trucks has gone up from 12 to 14 after the recovery of the maize truck in Kasungu and an audit revealed that another truck was duplicated during counting.

On the arrest, he said the man, whose particulars he could not make public, is suspected to have had a hand in the missing of the maize trucks.

Kalekeni said the suspect was arrested in Karonga on Thursday and was transferred to Lilongwe to be interrogated.

Kalekeni (C) shares NFRA’s report on maize on Friday

He said: “Some of those already arrested, including drivers refer to him as the masterminder, who was conniving with the people on the ground on how to execute the plan.”

The 14 trucks carrying 7 500 bags of maize of 50 kilogrammes (kg) worth K112.5 billion went missing in August this year.

The maize was being transported by a local firm Kachere Agriculture Trading contracted to move the commodity from Agricultural Development Marketing Corporation (Admarc) markets in the Northern Region to Kanengo Silos in Lilongwe for storage.

In a telephone interview yesterday, National Police spokesperson Peter Kalaya said six suspects have, so far, been arrested in connection with the missing maize.

The suspects are Smollet Kachere, the owner and managing partner of Kachere Agriculture Trading, Lucy Singini, who is the operations director of Kachere Agriculture Trading and other transporters Dominic Chunga, Fumbani Nyirongo, Moffat Jere and Joseph Mnshanga.

“We have withheld at least K64.3 million in unpaid invoices for the contractor Smolet Kachere, who was arrested by police on October 21 2022,” Kalaya said.

Kalekeni said several engagements with Kachere took place for him to account for the missing trucks but to no avail.

In the 2021/22 National Budget, government-funded Admarc K12 billion to procure strategic grain reserve maize on behalf of NFRA.

Admarc reported that 65 675 metric tonnes had been procured.

Part of the stock was drawn directly from Admarc depots by the Department of Disaster Management Affairs leaving a balance of 37 120 metric tonnes which was supposed to be transported to Kanengo Silos.

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