Drama as Lissu is arrested yet again

Singida East MP and Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) president Tundu Lissu was arrested again yesterday.

What you need to know:

  • According to Chadema spokesman Tumaini Makene, Mr Lissu who is also the Chadema’s chief legal officer, was arrested at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court premises.

Dar es Salaam. Singida East MP and Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) president Tundu Lissu was arrested again yesterday.

According to Chadema spokesman Tumaini Makene, Mr Lissu who is also the Chadema’s chief legal officer, was arrested at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court premises.

However, when contacted by The Citizen over the phone, the acting Dar es Salaam Special Police Zone Commander, Mr Lucas Mkondya, said he was not aware of the arrest.

“I don’t have that information. I, therefore, cannot comment anything at the moment. I simply don’t know anything about what you have just said,” he said.

Earlier, Mr Makene said the police, who arrested Mr Lissu, had claimed they were taking the latter to the Central Police Station, the very base of Mr Mkondya.

According to the party spokesman, Mr Lissu was earlier at the court because one of his sedition cases was being mentioned while he was also there to represent his client and Chadema cadre Yericko Nyerere in a case.

“As a car that carried Mr Lissu was making for the main exit of the court premises, but suddenly, it was blocked by two vehicles full of armed police officers,” Mr Makene said.

“They (police) ordered him (Lissu) out of his car and told him that he was under arrest and was needed at the Central Police Station. Then, they whisked him away in one of their vehicles,” he added.

Although the reasons for his supposed arrest were not clear, the incident comes only four days after the government warned on Saturday that it was going to take stern measures against some political figures whom it accused of ‘sabotaging’ development projects being implemented by President John Magufuli.

The warning was issued on Saturday by the acting director of Information Department Services and chief government spokesperson Zamaradi Kawawa, when addressing media on the ‘Bombardier fiasco’ which she claimed was part of the ‘dirty games’ engineered by some members of the opposition. She claimed that these politicians and some foreign elements were out to sabotage President Magufuli’s government.

A day earlier, Mr Lissu had addressed a press conference claiming that he had evidence showing why the government’s new commercial aircraft Bombardier Q400, which was expected to arrive in the country in July was yet to be delivered.

He went further to reveal that the plane had been seized in Canada following the government’s failure to pay compensation of $38.7 million (including penalty) to a Canadian firm Stirling Civil Engineering.

In her press briefing, though, Ms Kawawa admitted that the plane had indeed been attached following a court order following the government’s failure to settle the $25 million compensation.

However, she was quick to shift the blame on some opposition figures that she said had a direct hand in the seizure and that already investigations were underway so that they would be arrested.

“The government is aware that some opposition leaders are behind this. They hold malicious intentions towards efforts being undertaken by President Magufuli on bringing development in the country, but their days are numbered, their betrayal is intolerable,” she said.

Although she did not mention Mr Lissu by name, Ms Kawawa cited a recent incident involving him, “Some of them, not so long ago, went public and called on the international community to cut aid and other development support to Tanzania…”

On July 17, Mr Lissu addressed a press conference and among other things, he appealed to the international community to cut financial support to President Magufuli’s administration as efforts to press the government to respect principles of democracy, the rule of law and human rights.

He was arrested three days later at Julius Nyerere International Airport as he was about to board a plane to Kigali, Rwanda to attend East Africa Lawyers Society (EALS) Leadership Council meeting. He spent a week behind bars before he was released on bail.