Scheme to plant drugs on Mengi`s son falls through

IPP Executive Chairman Reginald Mengi has lashed out at police officers and other people he said were behind a recent attempt to implicate his son in drug trafficking. He told journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the plan was to plant drugs on the son, Abdiel Mengi, who was to have travelled to India on the Sunday of September 26 on a business trip. He said the conspiracy fell through after Abdiel smelled a rat and was forced to reschedule the trip. Elaborating, Mengi said a whopping 3billion/- was set aside to fund the scheme and some of those who had hatched or were expected to execute it had already pocketed advance payments. He named among those behind the plot as Police Anti-Drug Unit commander Godfrey Nzowa, Zonal Crime Officer Charles Mkumbo and Interpol inspector Eric, two Julius Nyerere International Airport officers and a mobile phone service company employee, calling on all of them to step down “because they have lost the trust of the public”. He also challenged those involved in or associated with the scheme and who felt aggrieved to go to court “to seek redress or be absolved because I am prepared and I know they are also prepared”. He said it was important for the officers to resign from the public service and thereafter turn to God “because of their inhumane, insensitive and dangerous acts”, adding that receiving money as an inducement to do something evil to innocent people was worse than corruption…,” he said. “The Police Force in general has been doing a dedicated and selfless job in ensuring that peace and the rule of law prevail in the country, but a few unscrupulous elements within it are tarnishing its reputation,” the IPP Executive Chairman pointed out. He named Inspector General of Police Said Mwema, Dar es Salaam Special Zone Police Commander Assistant Commissioner of Police Suleiman Kova, Elias Kalinga, David Msile, Faustine Shilogile and Venance Tossi among the police officers “who have committed themselves wholeheartedly to serving the force diligently and with integrity”. “My trust and confidence in the police is well-known. But this incident (the scheme) has irritated me. As far as I know my son cannot indulge in dirty business,” said Mengi, adding: “The fact that the scheme was hatched at a time when the General Election is just around the corner is what perplexes me most.” He explained that he had impeccable evidence that the person who mooted the plot was one of the people he once publicly denounced as “corruption sharks”. Giving the breakdown of the billions set aside for the conspiracy, he said Mkumbo was spotted along Dar es Salaam’s Nyerere Road on the morning of September 26 driving a silver Rav4 “as he was on his way to collect his advance payment of US$ 20,000 (half the full cut) with which to facilitate the scheme”. He added that Nzowa also pocketed a similar amount in advance payment just as did Inspector Eric and that the other three people involved in the conspiracy were promised 15m/- each. Reached for comment by phone yesterday, ASP Nzowa said a plot of the kind Mengi was talking about “would only be possible where there is ill will”. “The nature of my work requires me to be fully equipped with reasonable grounds, impeccable evidence and independent witnesses before making any arrest. I therefore do not understand what would drive me to target someone I do not even know in the first place,” he said. “My interests as a police officer do not match with the calibre of the people referred to (by Mengi) as those funding the said scheme. There is just no way we (police) can work with people ready to offer such huge amounts of money for such a scheme,” he noted, adding: “It is only in the courts that one can get justice.” Mkumbo similarly denied being involved in the conspiracy against Abdiel Mengi, arguing that he was too much of a high-ranking police officer to do anyone evil - least of all someone he is not familiar with.” He said he does not know Mengi’s son and “I only have been seeing the father through the media”, adding that he was not yet decided on what measures he would take following Mengi’s revelations. “But I hope my bosses will carry out thorough investigations to establish the truth and Mengi will also table his side of the story. In a word, I say these are mere fabrications that are 100 per cent false,” he noted. Deputy Director of Criminal Investigation Peter Kivuyo said when contacted by this paper yesterday evening that he could not comment on the matter as yet “because my office has not received any official complaints relating to the matter”.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN