Dodoma Regional Police Commander (RPC) Lazaro Mambosasa told The Guardian on Sunday yesterday that the trio including BAVICHA national chairman Patrobas Katambi, Secretary Julius Mwita and Mbeya wing chairman George Tito would stay behind bar until tomorrow.
“It is true that the police have arrested the BAVICHA leaders and they shall stay in custody until Monday when they will be arraigned in court,” he said.
But Joseph Kasambala, a member of the Chadema Central Committee told journalists in Dodoma yesterday that the trio who were on a routine regional tour were arrested on Friday night on reaching Dodoma from Mara and Mwanza where they had started the countrywide tour.
He said the group had planned to hold a press conference in Dodoma yesterday to update the public on their preparations to block Chama cha Mapinduzi’s (CCM) general meeting scheduled for July 23.
“They were arrested when I was away. I left them at Cape Town hotel in the evening when I went out to see a friend,” he said, adding that the police did not allow him contact with the detainees.
He said when he went to the police station yesterday morning to get in touch with the activists, he was referred to the Officer in Charge of the District (OCD) and the Regional Police Officer (RCO).
But he said the whereabouts at the Station revealed that the trio had been allegedly planning to vilify the government by mustering intention to put on T/shirts bearing the “Dikteta Uchwara” writing which loosely translates into English as “Flimsy Dictator.”
However, they were dressed in T-shirts bearing “Mwalimu Nyerere, democracy is strangled,” “Mwalimu Nyerere, democracy in jeopardy” and “Peace and Justice” slogans when they were arrested, Kasambala said.
The trio belong to a group of six BAVICHA leaders including Kasambala, national Publicity Secretary Edward Simbeye and Temeke Secretary Hilda Newton.
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