CUF speaks out against police for the arrest of its leaders
Zanzibar Daima
8 June 2017
The Civic United Front (CUF) has spoken out against the Police for what it says is the arrest of its leaders in Coast Region, at a time when murders and ambushes have been ongoing in that area for a long time.
CUF Executive Committee Chairman Julius Mtatiro, who was in Coast Region to find out what had happened to several party leaders whose whereabouts are still unknown, expressed his anger the police and provincial government’s failure to take the lives of those leaders seriously.
“We are here in Kibaha with the Regional Police Commander and the Regional Commissioner. The Regional Commissioner has asked to postpone our meeting until they have taken care of other things, like the Independence Celebrations. Imagine!” Mtatiro wrote on his Facebook page.
This CUF top leader has called on the government and the police to release “all CUF leaders who have been arrested” from what he described as “special facilities” in Dar es Salaam and Coast Region, including police stations in these regions , claiming that they are involved in the killing that are ongoing in Kibiti, Rufiji, and Mkuranga.
According to Mtatiro, the CUF Secretary for Kibiti District is among those who were taken by police last Friday, but despite his siblings and fellow CUF officials looking for him, he has not yet been located, and, he said, “state agencies have not said in which police station he is being held.”
In his statement, Mtatiro said that CUF is calling on the police, and defense and security committees in Dar es Salaam and Coast Regions, as well as the office of the Chief of Police, to “employ a different strategy in combatting the criminals who are killing citizens in Coast Region.”
“The policy of charging, arresting, and torturing CUF leaders is meaningless, it is bullying, brutal, and political, and it will not resolve the problems in Coast Region,” Mtatiro said.
Among the CUF leaders who have been arrested without any public statement of their whereabouts are diwanis, and chairpersons in villages and hamlets.
This comes when recent reports say that the government chairmen in Kijiji cha Kati, in Ikwiriri, Athman Mtoteka, has been abducted from his home by unidentified persons.
Mtoteka is a CUF leader, and he is believed to have been abducted yesterday between 7 and 8 pm.
Police Commander for Coast Region, Onesmo Lyanga, has confirmed this incident, saying, “Unknown persons arrived at Mtotekwa’s home on foot, then took him to an unknown location.”
Witnesses say that they saw five people arriving at his home on foot, taking hold of him, and leaving with him.
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