Ten freed after DPP withdraws charges

Dar es Salaam. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has dropped murder charges against seven former civil servants and three businessmen in connection with the collapsed building in the city centre that killed 24 people in 2013.

Those released include former Ilala Municipal executive director Gabriel Fuime, two officers from the Architects and Quantity Surveyors Registration Board (AQRB) Albert Mnuo who was assistant registrar and Joseph Ringo, a principal enforcement officer.

Others are Mr Charles Ogape and Mr Zonazea Anage who were engineers and Vedasto Ferdinand, a quantity surveyor, and Mr Michael Hemed, an architect. The businessmen were Goodluck Sylivester, Wilboard Mugabyaso and Ibrahim Kisoky.

Submitting the certificate to withdraw the charges yesterday, state attorney Bernard Kongola informed the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court that the DPP, on behalf of the Republic, no longer wished to further prosecute the accused on murder charges.

Resident Magistrate Dr Yohana Yongolo agreed to the request and withdrew the case under Section 91(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act.

The first and third accused in the case remain behind bars charged with murder. They are the owner of the building, Mr Razah Hussein Ladha, and an engineer, Mr Mohamed Abdukar. They face 24 counts of murder connected with the collapse of a 16-storey building.

The ten who were set free yesterday were arraigned on April 3, 2013, joined in the case and charged with manslaughter before they were released on bail.

However, on March 12, 2014, the DPP amended the charge sheet to murder. This meant that their bail had to be cancelled and they were sent to remand prison because murder is not bailable offence.

The charge sheet said that on March 29, 2013 at Indira Gandhi Street in Ilala District, through their different roles they had participated in the construction of the building whose collapse caused the deaths of Yusuph Shapia, Kulwa Alfan, Hamadu Musa, Kessy Manyapa and 20 other people.

The collapse of the 16-storey building, which happened on Good Friday in 2013, was one in a series of such incidents in Dar es Salaam. Three people were killed instantly, 27 were injured and about 20 remained trapped in the rubble.

In 2008 a similar incident took place when a 10-storey building came crashing down along Mtendeni Street in the city, about 1km away, killing two people, injuring several others.

In the 2013 incident the building collapsed at around 8.30am as people were waking up to a quite public holiday.

An eyewitness residing in the neighbourhood said he looked outside through the window after sensing a tremor, and saw the building completed only six months earlier, collapsing.

The ill-fated building was a joint project between the National Housing Corporation (NHC) and MS Ladha Construction Limited under the public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement.