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Govt ’working on Mahita diatribe’
2006-02-17 07:08:52
By Juma Thomas, Dodoma
The government said yesterday that Inspector General of Police Omar Mahita’s pronouncement linking the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) with violent crime had caught its attention.
Bakari Mwapachu, Minister of National Security and Public Safety, told Parliament that the government was working on allegations Mahita made when addressing senior police officers in Dar es Salaam last week
Mwapachu was responding to a call by Hamad Rashid Mohamed, Leader of the Official Opposition, that the government gives its official stand on the remarks.
Earlier, Mohamed said Mahita’s pronouncement had discredited his party and the President who had promised to put the war on crime at the top of his agenda.
He said Mahita’s declaration that CUF would not win power as long as he was IGP showed that Tanzania’s top policeman was openly biased against the opposition and did not respect democratic principles.
’’By declaring that he would see to it that CUF does not win power, Mahita has shown the whole world that he is openly partisan,’’ the CUF legislator said, adding that the remarks made a mockery of President Kikwete’s pledge to enhance multiparty democracy in Tanzania.
Mahita sparked a furore when he said CUF had a hand in the crime wave that has gripped the country.
The IGP displayed knives which he said had been imported into the country by the opposition party with the aim of disrupting last year’s general elections.
CUF has angrily dismissed the allegations and demanded that President Kikwete sack the IGP for bringing his government into disrepute.
The party is tomorrow expected to hold demonstrations across the country to protest Mahita’s accusations.
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