DAR ES SALAAM: A member of the Tanzanian opposition party Chadema has been found dead after being kidnapped by armed men suspected to be security agents, said the party on Sunday.
Ali Mohamed Kibao, a member of the party’s national secretariat, was taken away from a bus at gunpoint on Friday. He was travelling from Dar Es Salaam to the northern port city of Tanga, Chadema Secretary General John Mnyika told journalists on Saturday.
A party member Boniface Jacob on social media platform X said Kibao’s body was found in the Ununio area of Dar Es Salaam late on Saturday.
Party leaders and family members were gathered Sunday at Dar es Salaam’s Mwananyamala Hospital where Kibao’s body was brought for postmortem.
Chadema’s director of communication and foreign affairs John Mrema said the party chairman Freeman Mbowe will speak to the media later about the incident.
The development comes about four weeks after Mbowe, his deputy Tundu Lissu and other Chadema leaders were arrested briefly in a mass roundup ahead of a planned party youth event.
Rights groups and government opponents had voiced concerns the crackdown could signal a return to the oppressive policies of Tanzania’s late president John Magufuli.
The arrests came despite his successor President Samia Suluhu Hassan vowing competitive politics and easing some restrictions on the opposition and the media.
Police have not yet issued a statement about Kibao’s death although police spokesman David Misime on Saturday said that investigations had been started into the reported abduction.
