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CUF in mass demo to press for Mahita’s sack
2006-02-18 09:12:43
By Guardian Reporter
Civil United Front (CUF), Chairman Prof. Ibrahim Lipumba will this morning lead scores of opposition supporters into the streets of Dar es Salaam, in a mass demonstration to press for the resignation of Inspector General of Police (IGP), Omar Mahita.
In an unprecedented move, Regional Police Commander Alfred Tibaigana, granted the CUF rank-and-file, the green light to proceed with the mass, albeit peaceful demonstration.
The opposition’s slated procession is a protest note to the police chief for recently attributing the upsurge of armed robberies that hit Dar es Salaam and parts of the country to CUF.
’I received their application, and issued a demonstration permit to allow them to express their feelings over the resignation of Mahita,’ said RPC on Thursday.
Following the approval of the scheduled procession, CUF issued the itinerary for the demonstration.
According to the party’s Information and Publicity Director, Hizza Tambwe, the procession will start at CUF headquarters at Buguruni.
Led by the CUF national officials, the demonstration will head for Jangwani grounds via Uhuru, Kawawa, and Morogoro roads.
However, earlier, the procession was scheduled to go through Uhuru and Morogoro roads, but that part of the itinerary was expunged due to security considerations after consultations between RPC and CUF leaders.
The opposition has been enraged by Mahita’s utterances linking CUF to a series of armed robberies that have in the recent past rocked Dar es Salaam and parts of the country.
The opposition has demanded that President Jakaya Kikwete relieve Mahita of his office as IGP, for deliberately mudslinging CUF, and for failing to curb the rising crime wave in the country.
CUF Chairman, however, had earlier told reporters that the party was ready to cancel the planned demonstration if the President expeditiously moved to fire Mahita before today.
On Thursday, the government was emphatic that it had with concern taken note of the IGP’s utterances.
Minister of National Security and Public Safety Bakari Mwapachu, told Parliament that the government was keenly considering the allegations made by the police boss about the opposition party, CUF.
The minister was responding to a demand by official leader of the opposition in Parliament, Hamad Rashid Mohamed, that the government give an official statement on the remarks.
Mohamed, at the same time regretted that the remarks had discredited CUF, and President Jakaya Kikwete who has promised to unabatedly engage in war against crime.
He said Mahita’s declaration that CUF would not win and get to power as long as he was IGP, made it clear that the country’s top policeman was openly biased against the opposition, in total disregard of democratic tenets.
Since his election to the country’s top helm, President Kikwete has consistently reiterated his unrelented wish to rid the society and government of corruption, crime, misuse and misappropriation of public resources.
Besides associating CUF with armed robberies, Mahita has in the recent past been on the spot, with a section of the local media accusing him of misusing public resources and accumulating ill-gotten wealth.
Addressing police officers in Dar es Salaam, Mahita displayed an assortment of knives, which, he claimed had been imported into the country by the opposition with the intention of disrupting last year’s general election.
The claims enraged CUF\’s top leadership, with the party swiftly demanding the immediate sacking of the IGP for putting the government into disrepute.
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