Chadema top leaders fail to show up at Central Police Station as directed
What you need to know:
- The opposition party’s leaders, who didn’t report to the police station on March 13, this year, are the national chairman, Mr Freeman Mbowe; deputy secretary general in Tanzania Mainland, Mr John Mnyika; the party’s Women Wing chairperson, Ms Halima Mdee; Tarime Rural legislator, Mr John Heche and Tarime Urban lawmaker, Ms Ester Matiko.
Five Chadema top leaders have failed to report to the Central Police Station today as directed by law enforcers because of their parliamentary roles.
The opposition party’s leaders, who didn’t report to the police station on March 13, this year, are the national chairman, Mr Freeman Mbowe; deputy secretary general in Tanzania Mainland, Mr John Mnyika; the party’s Women Wing chairperson, Ms Halima Mdee; Tarime Rural legislator, Mr John Heche and Tarime Urban lawmaker, Ms Ester Matiko.
Only the party’s secretary general, Dr Vincent Mashinji and deputy secretary general in Zanzibar, Mr Salumu Mwalimu reported to the station today in the morning.
Advocate, Alex Massaba told The Citizen that the five top brass leaders were Members of Parliament (MPs), therefore, they had reported at the designated capital city of Dodoma where they were fulfilling their parliamentary roles including attending committee meetings.
"As it is known, the five leaders are lawmakers, who have reported in Dodoma where they are attending the parliamentary committee meetings which have just started,” he said.
"Dr Mashinji and Mr Mwalimu have reported because they are not legislators. Currently, we are waiting for the police directives.”
Speaking after today’s interrogations, Dr Mashinji said they were directed to report to the station on Friday, March 16 at 8pm.
The Chadema top leaders have been questioned by the police on their roles in the February 16, 2018 demonstrations.
The demonstrations in question were staged during the countdown to the February 17 parliamentary by-election for Kinondoni Constituency.
While demonstrating peacefully, police came to disperse them, firing a bullet that ended up killing a National Institute of Transport (NIT) student, Ms Akwilina Akwilini who was not even taking part in the demonstrations.
Both the police force and the registrar of political parties have written to the party as they seek to dig deeper into the opposition party’s role in the demos.
The police force wrote to Chadema two weeks ago, requiring the opposition party’s top brass to report to the Central Police Station in Dar es Salaam for interrogations.
