Magufuli directs eight acquitted police officers to resume duty
President John Magufuli
What you need to know:
Few hours after eight police officers were acquitted of money laundering, economic sabotage, organized crime and corruption charges they were facing, President John Magufuli has directed that they should resume duty with immediate effect.
Mwanza. President John Magufuli has directed that eight police officers who were freed today by a court in Mwanza to resume duty with immediate effect.
The eight police officers were arraigned allegedly for their role in illegal transportation of 319Kg gold and Sh305 million.
Addressing public rally on Thursday, July 18, 2019, President Magufuli directed the police officers who had been fired to resume duty and urged them to work hard.
"I want police officers to abstain from corrupt incidents, mistreating citizens and stop fabricating cases,” he said.
However, Magufuli didn’t give the reasons that led to acquittal of the police officers, though he was quoted in January as telling the public that there was enough evidence that they are involved in the charges against them.
The eight are among 70 inmates who walked free on Thursday, July 19, from Butimba Prison, after the Director of Public Prosecution Biswalo Mganga declared that the state was no longer interested in the case.
The eight plus four business men were facing charges including money laundering, economic sabotage, organized crime and corruption.
According to the office regional Police Commander Jumanne Muliro the accused were set to appear before court earlier today to fulfill the legal requirements for them to be released.
The police officers include, the head of operations Mwanza Region , MoriceOkinda, E 6948 D/CPL Kasala, F 1331 PL Matete, G 6885 D/C Alex na G 5080 D/C Maingu.
Others are G 7244 D/C Timothy, G 1876 D/C Japhet, H 4060 D/C David Kadama who have been in remand since January 11 when they first appeared in court.
The 70 inmates from Butimba Prison are among 200 prisoners from Lake Zone who have been set free after the DPP’s tour of the Lake Zone
According to the DPP during his tour in the region he discovered there were several shortcomings in the system which as a result was causing overcrowding in prisons.
He said some of the cases were very petty, whereas others were fabricated due to unknown reasons
