Chadema Secretary General Willibrod Slaa in Dar es Salaam yesterday briefs the press on, among other issues, the arrest of the party’s head of security. With him are his deputy Zitto Kabwe and Mainland vice chair Said Amour Arfi (centre) PHOTO | fidelis felix
Dar es Salaam. Politicians now seem intent to use the assault of Tanzania Editors Forum’s chairman Absalom Kibanda last week to achieve political mileage and conduct character assassination of their rivals, it has been observed.
Mr Kibanda, who also serves as the group managing editor of the New Habari Corporation, was grievously wounded in a vicious attack right outside his house at Mbezi Juu in Dar es Salaam at midnight on Tuesday last week.
Following the incident, he had to be flown to South Africa where he had his left eye removed.
So far police efforts to manhunt the men who violently assaulted Mr Kibanda were yet to bear fruit. At the same time, accusing fingers have started being pointed at some individuals and political parties.
The main opposition party, Chadema, and Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister Bernard Membe have been the latest casualties as their competitors attempt to link them to the barbaric act.
There have been reports circulating in both the mainstream media and in social networks that tie Chadema and Mr Membe, who is believed to harbour presidential ambitions, to the incident.
A video clip was posted on the Internet that seems to show Chadema’s director of Defence and Security, Mr Wilfred Lwakatare, plotting with another unidentified individual to hurt somebody.
Mr Lwakatare was swiftly arrested by the Police and was still being held for questioning till yesterday afternoon, according to his lawyer Nyaronyo Kicheere.
Yesterday, both Chadema and Mr Membe came out swinging against the people who want to use the assault on Mr Kibanda to undertake political assassination against them.
In a statement issued to the media Mr Membe said he was shocked that some people would dare spread lies that he actually financed the assault of Mr Kibanda.
“It is hard to believe where the defiance and arrogance of those who spread malice against me come from, but it is obvious that it is being perpetrated by a group of people for their political gains,” Mr Membe said, adding that he was considering taking a newspaper that carried the falsehood to court.
As he was being evacuated Mr Kibanda told reporters that he believes the incident has something to do with his work as a journalist but he, prophetically, cautioned against using the incident to wage dirty politics.
The secretary general of Chadema, Dr Wilbrod Slaa, told reporters here yesterday that they have information that the video clip being shared through the social media and which led to the detention of Mr Lwakatare was made by government’s security organs.
“The clip was also made to destroy the party’s reputation,” Dr Slaa said.
The voice in the clip that seems to show Mr Lwakatare as giving instructions to someone to track the movements and lifestyles of a person was not genuine, according to Dr Slaa.
According to Chadema, the Lwakatare setup was intelligently planned so as to spread lies that the party was involved in the brutal conducts to intimidate, harass and torture some people in the country.
Dr Slaa said the clip in the social media, which he admitted to have seen several times after being posted, carried circumstances which generated questions over the legitimacy of its content.
One of the things which needed clarification, according to him, was the reason which made the other character in the clip, who was asking Mr Lwakatare leading questions, to hide from view.
Secondly, he said it doesn’t sound right, if plans to implement sensitive plans like killings were to be made in the public as the video background and movement of the people justified.
“Even a primary school pupil would not accept such imaginations…How can someone plan to implement sensitive issues like this in the face of the public like the way it appears in the video,” he wondered.
He added, “To a person entrusted to head the party’s defence and security directorate doing such a thing would cost him his position as he subject into threat people and properties security,” insisted Dr Slaa.
Mr Kibanda who is still in South Africa and who had been bedridden over the past week is recuperating.
Doctors at the Johannesburg Milpark Hospital, where he is hospitalised, said he can move around in his room and could start going outdoor in the next two days.However, he remains under close doctors’ supervision.
http://thecitizen.co.tz/component/content/article/37-tanzania-top-news-story/29644-kibanda-attack-bares-dirty-ikulu-race-tactics.html
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