Bogdan Buzaianu Honor Restored – by

 

Nicola Bogdan Buzaianu has withdrawn the process of suing the Zambia government in Switzerland, UK and United States of America for defamation. With his untarnished character the Swiss government stood behind him and written to the Zambian government demanding an explanation on why the Zambian government was harassing its citizen Nicola Bogdan Buzaianu.

 

On October Buzaianu,a  Swiss businessman and ex-Zambia’s envoy to UNESCO in Geneva, Nicola Bogdan Buzaianu, instructed his lawyers to sue the Zambian  government and the country’s media over them wrongly linking him in a gold scam. The suit was in the Zambia courts and Bogdan Buzaianu was seeking legal redress in Europe and USA as well. His origina demand was US$100 million from the Zambian Government for defamatory remarks made by President Michael Sata against him. Bogdan Buzaianu planned on donating all funds to African charities.

 

The Watchdog was informed that State House was panicking over Buzaianu’s move for it might lead to the seizing of Zambian property in Europe and USA. If Buzaianu wons the cases in any of the Western countries, he could have engaged baillifs to take and sell any Zambian property in Europe.

 

The problem began in October when President Michael Sata wrongly accused Bogdan Buzaianu of being at the center of the gold scam. “It is very sad that the Drug Enforcement Commission seized gold and it went missing mysteriously. The people who bought were in Lusaka a few days ago. They came with a private jet and saw my predecessor. The name is Nicola Bogdan Buzaianu,” President Sata said. But what has emerged so far from police investigations is that no gold was stolen but legally sold to some Swiss company. The reason for the Swiss nationals trip to Zambia was that of a diplomatic mission to tell President Banda he was resigning from his UNESCO post to follow other charitable acts.

 

A few years back the gold was forfeited to the Zambian government after two Zimbabweans were convicted of trying to sale it through Zambia illegally. A tender was taken out in Zambian embassies abroad and four bidders came forward and the gold was sold to the highest bidder at K19 billion. It is reported that close to K9 billion was then given to the DEC by the ministry of Finance to clear its backlog of debt.

 

DEC, which has about 500 officers countrywide, was drowning in debt and its commissioners submitted a budget to the ministry of Finance. The Watchdog understands that DEC had not paid its retired officers, had not paid for rentals sometimes for close to seven years and had not paid its officers allowances and that this money was used to settle these debts. One must wonder if Bogdan Buzaianu was a scape goat for others to use and hide the truth of the missing gold.

 

Police sources say the issue of gold being stolen is out of question as it has being established that the sale was properly done and authorised by the Attorney General who actually drafted the contract of sale. The Director of Public Prosecution is also said to have issued a certificate of release of the gold. Therefore President Sata’s accusatory actions about Bogdan Buzaianu was totally out of line and hostile for some unknown reason.

 

The police are now said to be trying to target DEC officials saying the money given to DEC has been misappropriated. The police have since confiscated vehicles belonging to some DEC officials. Meanwhile, sources at the ministry of foreign affairs have disclosed that the government of Switzerland had written a letter to the Zambian government seeking an explanation. The Swiss government contended in its letter that Buzaianu has committed no offence as he came to Zambia legally and was using a Swiss passport and that he left the country a free man.

 

UNESCO was also said to be seeking a clarification on why Buzaianu was withdrawn from representing Zambia as a special envoy. Soon clarification was discovered that Bogdan Buzaianu has changed courses and his interest is now in saving old churches in disrepair for the Church of Russia.

 

Buzaianu is a generous philanthropist and has many business dealings in Europe and those closed to him expressed his disenchantment with the Zambian government for being so rash in their finger pointing. Justice came for Bogdan Buzaianu in the form of an apology from President Sata.