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State ordered to unfreeze Mutodi's bank account
09 May 2014 at 12:38hrs | Views
The state was Thursday ordered to unfreeze the bank account of National Housing Delivery Trust's (NHDT) founder, Energy Mutodi, who is being accused of fleecing desperate homeseekers of $588 000.
Mutodi, who is jointly charged with a trustee of NHDT, Boniface Chikono, on the fraud charges, made an application earlier this week, to have the Trust's account unfrozen.
In his application through his lawyers, led by Charles Chinyama, Mutodi argued that NHDT had acquired a number of housing stands from businessman Philip Chiyangwa's Pinnacle Holdings for $3,2 million which he was now failing to pay as the bank account had been frozen.
On the other hand, the state, led by Michael Reza, had submitted that Mutodi should approach the High Court, since the lower court could not review its earlier decision to have the bank account frozen.
In his ruling Harare provincial magistrate, Douglas Vakayi Chikwekwe, said the state had misdirected itself both in law and fact when it asserted the court had no jurisdiction to hear the application.
"This court has the full power and authority at law to entertain and decide on the merits of the application before it. Such mandate is derived from section 50 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07) which specifically deals with seizure under warrant. To argue that this provision does not apply in this application, is tantamount to misdirection," said Chikwekwe.
"The application is rightly before the appropriate court with the full capacity to entertain it on its first instance and not on review or appeal as argued by the state," Chikwekwe added.
Chikwekwe ruled that the state failed to take into cognisance five points, which include, among others, the account in question belongs to NHDT and not Mutodi, and NHDT bought land from Pinnacle Property to benefit its members by virtue of a memorandum of agreement and was failing to pay for it due to the freezing of its account.
"In the view of the above, the account of NHDT is hereby unfrozen without any conditions. Further that henceforth, NHDT through, its Board of Trustees shall be ordered to operate its accounts normally for the purposes of discharging its obligations to its creditors, chief among them, being Pinnacle Holdings," ruled Chikwekwe.
Mutodi, who is jointly charged with a trustee of NHDT, Boniface Chikono, on the fraud charges, made an application earlier this week, to have the Trust's account unfrozen.
In his application through his lawyers, led by Charles Chinyama, Mutodi argued that NHDT had acquired a number of housing stands from businessman Philip Chiyangwa's Pinnacle Holdings for $3,2 million which he was now failing to pay as the bank account had been frozen.
On the other hand, the state, led by Michael Reza, had submitted that Mutodi should approach the High Court, since the lower court could not review its earlier decision to have the bank account frozen.
"This court has the full power and authority at law to entertain and decide on the merits of the application before it. Such mandate is derived from section 50 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07) which specifically deals with seizure under warrant. To argue that this provision does not apply in this application, is tantamount to misdirection," said Chikwekwe.
"The application is rightly before the appropriate court with the full capacity to entertain it on its first instance and not on review or appeal as argued by the state," Chikwekwe added.
Chikwekwe ruled that the state failed to take into cognisance five points, which include, among others, the account in question belongs to NHDT and not Mutodi, and NHDT bought land from Pinnacle Property to benefit its members by virtue of a memorandum of agreement and was failing to pay for it due to the freezing of its account.
"In the view of the above, the account of NHDT is hereby unfrozen without any conditions. Further that henceforth, NHDT through, its Board of Trustees shall be ordered to operate its accounts normally for the purposes of discharging its obligations to its creditors, chief among them, being Pinnacle Holdings," ruled Chikwekwe.
Source - Zim Mail
