Dares Salaam,TANZANIA: A Tanzanian opposition leader has been assassinated after being kidnapped on Monday, the Tanzanian opposition chief Freeman Mbowe claimed on Wednesday.
According to Mbowe the opposition leader identified as Daniel John had been beaten to death after being picked with another of his friend in Hananasif ward in Kinondoni area of the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam.
Mbowe further said that John’s friend who survived the attack said the kidnap was linked to stiff campaigns for the Kinondoni constituency byelection which are slated for February 17th.
“They were beaten and tortured, and the torturers were asking why they were campaigning for Chadema’s candidate,” Mbowe told reporters.
The Kinondoni constituency race has several candidates who include Maulid Mtulia of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party and Salum Mwalimu of the opposition Chama Cha Demokrasia.
Four opposition allied party’s NCCR-Mageuzi,Chaumma, National league for democracy and Civic united front have already thrown their weight behind the opposition candidates in Kinondoni and Siha which fell vacant after the area MP’s defected to the ruling CCM party.
In September 2017 Singida East member of parliament Tundu Lissu, a fiery critic of president John Pombe Magufuli survived an attack on his life at the Tanzanian administrative capital of Dodoma.
Lissu who was treated at the Nairobi hospital before flying to Belgium earlier this year accused the Tanzanian government of having a hand in his attempted murder.
This comes just a day after the Catholic church in Tanzania accused the CCM government of suppression of democracy.
