Africa-Press – Lesotho. NEWLY elected Basotho National Party (BNP) spokesperson David Letela says the army is after him. Letela told a press conference yesterday that the army has instructed him to report to the Makoanyane Barracks instead of its headquarters after he criticised the commander during a radio interview.
He said he has declined the invitation. Letela said he is now afraid to live in his own house after he narrowly escaped being nabbed by individuals whom he claimed were soldiers at his home on Tuesday night.
But the army has denied that it had anything to do with the Tuesday events. Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Sakeng Lekola told thepost last night that they do not have any interest in politics.
“It is not true that we called any politician, we are only focused on the security of the country and all the citizens,” he said.
He said the army does not have powers to dictate what people say on radio stations. “There is freedom of expression in this country,” Lt Col Lekola said.
However, Letela was adamant that the army was out to get him following some remarks he made against Lieutenant General Mojalefa Letsoela. He was speaking during an interview with ACL Radio station on Tuesday.
Letela said he reported the matter to Thetsane police. He said he had told the police that his life was in danger after some individuals he claimed were soldiers had visited his house at night.
The police spokesman Senior Superintendent Mpiti Mopeli said he was not aware of the matter when approached for comment last night. Letela told the radio station that Lt Gen Letsoela “should not forget that those who came before him with the same tendencies are in jail for the fifth year due to bad behaviour”.
“I will not thank the incompetent army of General Letsoela that is doing things incompetently,” he said.
He said he could foresee “a black cloud hovering over the army and its management”. Letela said the army as an institution “will be destroyed because of politics”.
“He is going to destroy that institution, this is a wake-up call to him,” he said.
Letela said he was in the middle of the interview when the host, Lebese Molati, told him to stop immediately because the army had called him instructing that he should end the interview.
The programme in which Letela was a guest starts at 12 noon and ends at 2pm but on that day it ended abruptly. The radio station switched to music without providing an explanation.
Both Molati and his manager, ’Mantolo Mohale, could not be reached for comment last night. Letela left the studio and he said he arrived at his house at around 7:30 pm, and he left soon after to go to a nearby grocery shop.
When he came back he saw a car turning off its headlights at his home. “I then saw soldiers at the gate,” he said. “I immediately recalled that I was wanted by the army.
The army had made several calls instructing me to meet them at the barracks. ” After he saw those soldiers Letela said he fled and hid in a safer place.
“I went back to my house at 1am and found that the soldiers were no more there,” he said.
“I was scared to sleep there and I left the place again.
” Letela said he was scared even to drive to the nearest police station.
Letela had been at the ACL Radio talking about the ordeal of his leader, Machesetsa Mofomobe, whose bodyguard’s gun has been seized by the army. Mofomobe says the gun has still not been returned to his bodyguard.
Speaking at the same conference, Mofomobe said the army had told him that they were going to conduct investigations on the gun. He said the army told them to fetch the gun the next day at the police headquarters.
He said the army has not handed back the gun to date. What baffles him is that gun licences are regulated by the police and not the army. “They took that gun by force, maybe they want to put my life at risk so that I am attacked easily,” Mofomobe said.
He said Letela went to the ACL Radio to talk about the same issue. Mofomobe said the next day Letela reported to the party that he had received a phone call from a cell number which was revealed by the true caller application as an LDF rapid response contact.
He said a soldier called Ramoroke asked Letela about his whereabouts so that they could meet him. But he told him that he could not make it as he was far away.
On Sunday, the same soldier called him again asking to meet him but Letela said they could meet at the BNP office at 2pm. But that soldier did not come.
On Tuesday Letela received another call from the army asking him to go to Makoanyane Barracks. “I told him not to go there,” Mofomobe said. He said the soldiers went on to threaten Letela that if he did not come they would come and collect him themselves.
Mofomobe reiterated that on Tuesday night unknown gunmen arrived at Letela’s house. He said it is the police’s responsibility to take criminals to court.
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