Police confirm they are holding human activist Tito Magoti
What you need to know:
According to a statement signed by Dar es Salaam Special Zone Commander Lazaro Mambosasa, Tito Elias Magoti was not abducted but was arrested by the police.
Dar es Salaam . Police in Dar es Salaam has confirmed that they are holding Legal and Human Rights Centre Public Affairs officer alongside three others for questioning over unspecified charges.
According to a statement signed by Dar es Salaam Special Zone Commander Lazaro Mambosasa, Tito Elias Magoti was not abducted but was arrested by the police.
Earlier there were reports that Mr Magoti, 26,had been kidnapped by unknown people around 10 am in Mwenge, Kinondoni, at the Sam Nujoma and Bagamoyo Roads intersection.
Reports from his closest friends and LHRC stated that once he got off a motorcycle taxi commonly known as boda boda a group of six people in plain clothes confronted him and bundled him into a Toyota Harrier after they had handcuffed him.
But in a statement to the public released today, December 20, 2019, Dar es Salaam Special Zones Commander Lazaro Mambosasa said what happened was not a kidnap, but rather ordinary police arrest.
“Following the arrest [of Mr Magoti], we have heard several reports indicating that he was kidnapped. We would like to inform the public that he was not and there are no incidents of kidnapping in Dar es Salaam,” said Mambosasa.
Mambosasa said Mr Magoti and his three other colleagues were in safe hands and they were undergoing investigations and interrogations related to the 'criminal charges' they face.
The statement does not clarify the criminal charges.
However, Mr Mambosasa said that Mr Magoti and his colleagues will be brought to court once the investigation into their charges is completed.
