Chadema tells off Lugola in Lissu arrest remarks saga
What you need to know:
- Chadema expresses disappointment over home affairs minister call for police to arrest Singida East Member of Parliament
Dar es Salaam. The main opposition, Chadema, has expressed its disappointment over remarks made by home affairs minister Kangi Lugola with regard to the condition and the whereabouts of Singida East Member of Parliament Mr Tundu Lissu.
Speaking to reporters yesterday said that he is surprised that the police haven’t arrested just as it has been doing to loiters.
“I am surprised, why the police hasn’t arrested Mr Lissu just like they have been arresting other loiters…he has been loitering around the world, while insisting that he is still sick,” said Mr Lugola. But speaking to the Press on Thursday, February 14, Chadema director of operation Mr Benson Kigaila faulted the minister.
He said instead of wanting the police to arrest Mr Lissu, he should directed them to investigate and arrest people, who attacked Mr Lissu.
“We are too disappointed by Mr Lugola’s remarks…as a responsible minister, we thought he should offer the solution,” said Mr Kigaila in a press conference held at the party’s headquarters.
Mr Kigaila suggested that Mr Lugola’s statement is a tactic by the police to divert attention, so that it couldn’t be held accountable for failing to fulfill its responsibility of carrying-out investigation into Mr Lissu’s shootings.
Mr Kigaila said if the police had any intension to investigate Mr Lissu’s shootings they should have already conducted at least ballistic tests.
The Chadema director of training and operations claimed that the government has been issuing contradicting statements with regard to Mr Lissu’s shootings.
For example, Mr Kigaila said that the IGP, Simon Sirro is in record claiming that the police sent its detective to Nairobi, where Mr Lissu was admitted shortly after the shooting only for Mr Lugola. However, according to Mr Kigaila the minister, while addressing the press said the government couldn’t seek foreign investigators because that could only be done if it was a cross boarder incident.
“It is surprising that yesterday (Wednesday) the minister for home affairs claimed that the doesn’t have CCTV cameras, while since the incident occurred neither the Inspector General of Police nor the then minister serving on the same docket didn’t deny the presence of the cameras,” added Mr Kigaila.
Some of lawyers, who spoke to The Citizen, also categorically opposed Mr Lugola’s stance.
“Police have a mandate to summon Mr Lissu and his driver something that they haven’t done,” said an independent lawyer Mr Dk Onesmo Kyauke.
On his part another lawyer Mr Fulgence Massawe said it is important for the police to use independent investigators since both Chadema and the government has lost faith towards one another.
Mr Lissu has been abroad for treatment since September 7, 2017 when he was attacked by unknown assailants. He have had a number of operations after the attack, and says he has to undergo another surgery in the near future.
