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| National |
| 10 Young Democrats arrested in Dedza |
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by
Pilirani Semu-Banda, 16 April 2003
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10:34:25
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Ten UDF Young Democrats were last Saturday arrested in Dedza after they roughed up their district governor Ackim Jumo who they want fired from his position.
One of the Young Democrats, who identified himself as Ajussu, said in a telephone interview, Jumo had them arrested after they forcefully told him not to address a party rally in the district and tried to remove him from the venue of the rally.
Ajussu said the police intervened in the fracas, took them away and locked them up at the station.
“We spent a whole day at the police station and were later given police bail,” said Ajussu.
Jumo confirmed the incident in a separate interview but disowned the Young Democrats as “members of MCP who also work with NDA”.
The district governor accused Ajussu of being a confusionist who, he said, should not be taken seriously.
He alleged that Ajussu wants to bring confusion to Dedza UDF and that he was leading a “group of drunks” to cause the fracas.
“These people calling themselves Young Democrats were coming from a tavern when they disrupted my rally. They don’t even have positions in our party,” said Jumo.
He said his committee has, however, decided to stop pursuing the matter with the police since the people involved in the case should not be taken seriously.
When contacted for comment, the party’s Regional Governor (Centre) Uladi Mussa said he was not communicated to about the incident but he knew that “there were some jealousy people” at Dedza Town who wanted to have Jumo removed.
He said Jumo does not come from Dedza Town and some party members at the town wanted one of their own to be district governor.
Mussa also said the people were accusing Jumo of failing to move around the district to do party work.
But he said Jumo fails to “go everywhere because of transportation problems”. He said UDF will soon make a vehicle available to the district office to help Jumo out.
Mussa said Jumo cannot be ousted since: “the people who want him out do not have any authority to remove him”.
Police officer-in-charge in Dedza refused to comment on the matter and referred the issue to police headquarters.
Officials in the Police Public Relations Office confirmed the issue and said the UDF officials in the district have withdrawn the matter from police.
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