Ministry of Homeland Security has revoked the Malawian diplomatic passport that the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services issued to Nigerian businessperson Dozy Mmobuosi.
The revocation comes a month after the United States government placed Malawi on the yellow list and gave the country 60 days to address the issue after it emerged that Mmobuosi, who is a fraud convict in the US, has a Malawian diplomatic passport.
In an interview yesterday, Minister of Homeland Security Ezekiel Ching’oma said Mmobuosi and all borders have already been informed about government’s decision to revoke and withdraw his Malawian Passport.
He said: “Indeed it [the passport] has been revoked and withdrawn. We are serious about realigning the integrity of Malawi passport. It is a very critical document.”
A letter we have seen dated April 17 2025, issued by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services, gives Mmobuosi seven days to surrender the passport to any Malawi Embassy, High Commission, Consular or the department.
The department claims that the issuance of the diplomatic passport number MWD001502 to Mmobuosi was the result of an administrative oversight and is contrary to the Laws of Malawi.
Reads the letter in part: “Please be advised that a Malawi Diplomatic passport is issued exclusively to Malawian citizens.”
In 2023, Mmobuosi visited Malawi and pledged to invest K500 million into the Tigwirane Manja Housing Project to construct 1 000 houses for households that were displaced by Cyclone Freddy. He, along with former presidents Bakili Muluzi and Joyce Banda, who are also Cyclone Freddy Goodwill ambassadors, on June 6 2023 attended the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction 45 houses in Phalombe.
In an interview yesterday, Banda said she has never worked with Mmobuosi.
She said she knew him through Muluzi and met him for the first time during the June 6 2023 ground-breaking ceremony in Phalombe which she attended on Muluzi’s invitation.
Muluzi did not pickup our phone calls on several attempts.
Inside sources at the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services indicate that Mmobuosi’s passport was issued within seven hours after President Lazarus Chakwera’s approval.
Presidential press secretary Anthony Kasunda declined to comment on the matter saying Minister of Information and Digitisation Moses Kunkuyu was better placed, but Kunkuyu, who is also the government spokesperson, was not available for comment.
Commenting on the matter, governance scholar at Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences Andrew Kaponya said Mmobuosi’s passport scandal should be a wake-up call to the Ministry of Homeland Security.
He said before issuing diplomatic passports, due diligence needs to be done to clear people whether they have international crimes.
Said Kaponya: “However, this case is another testimony that as a country we have weak instruments as well as loopholes in our immigration systems due to, among others, corruption as well as systems that are captured by politicians and elites.”
During the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of 45 houses in Phalombe, member of Parliament (MP)for Phalombe East Robert Mwina told the gathering that Mmobuosi was issued a diplomatic passport as a token of appreciation for injecting about K500 million for construction of 1000 houses.
In Malawi, diplomatic passports are issued to all Cabinet ministers, MPs, High Court and Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal Judges and their spouses, Secretary to the President and Cabinet, principal secretaries, and some selected senior government officials upon the President’s approval.
