Lipumba names nine members to form CUF board of trustees

Dar es Salaam. The embattled Civic United Front (CUF) chairman, Prof Ibrahim Lipumba, has named nine people who will form the party’s board of trustees.

The decision comes after the High Court in the Dar es Salaam Zone invalidated the previous board registered by the Registration Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (Rita) over lack of minutes of the nomination meeting and failure to involve overseer from the government institution responsible for political parties.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, February 21, 2019, Prof Lipumba said members in the new board were the ones who constituted the defunct board, but this time around, the process was well documented and witnessed by deputy registrar of political parties Sisty Nyahoza.

He named nominated members from Tanzania Mainland as Peter Michael Malebo, Abdul Rajab Magomba, Hajra Omar Silia, Amina Thomas Mshamu and Aziz Issa Daghesh.

“Salha Hilal Mohamed, Asha Said Suleiman, Seleman Makame Issa and Mussa Haji Kombo have been nominated as board of trustee members from Zanzibar,” he told a press conference.

“They were appointed during an emergency meeting held on February 19, this year, purposely called to fill the gaps unveiled by the court in its ruling on case number 13 of Ally Saleh who sought to know the legally recognized CUF board of trustees.”

According to him, CUF constitution requires that five members from Tanzania Mainland at least two women and four from Zanzibar, one of them being a woman, should be part of the board.

According to him, already the names have been submitted at Rita offices for registration.

The decision signals ongoing dispute within the second largest opposition party after yesterday another faction led by secretary general Seif Shariff Hamand nominated nine names to form the board of trustees.

CUF has split into two factions after plunging into leadership crisis following unprecedented return of Prof Lipumba as the party’s chairman in August 2016 after resigning from the position in 2015.

When contacted, Rita chief executive officer Emmy Hudson said she wasn’t in the office to confirm submission of registration application from Prof Lipumba’s faction.