PRESIDENT John Magufuli has saved Iringa Urban Member of Parliament (MP) Peter Msigwa from remaining behind bars after paying 38m/- out of 40m/- fine imposed on him after being convicted of incitement, rioting and unlawful assembly.
The Director of Presidential communications Mr Gerson Msigwa, accompanied by other senior officers from the State House, arrived at the Kisutu Resident Mag istrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam in the afternoon to effect the payment for the release of the opposition MP.
Briefing journalists at the court grounds, Mr Msigwa said that the Head of State decided to rescue the situation having been approached by the Chadema MP’s close relatives after they had failed to raise amount.
“At the family level, after having organised themselves to raise the imposed fine, they managed to get 2m/- only. They tried to look elsewhere, but in vein. They decided to approach the president to assist them. The president agreed to pay the balance of 38m/-,” he said.
The elder brother with the opposition legislator, Rev Benet Simon Msigwa, told journalists that indeed they had approached the president to rescue the situation having failed to get the required amount. He thanked the president for his generous support.
“We and the president are relatives. He has helped us as our relative. My uncle is married to his daughter,” he said. The elder Msigwa also added, “We thank him (President Magufuli) for his generosity for us. We’re so thankful, because we were stuck. We couldn’t help ourselves. We are right now to Segerea Prison to get him out.”
Details show that the money donated by Dr Magufuli for the legislator’s fine was paid at 2.01pm and 25 minutes later the opposition party also made the similar payment.
The decision by President Magufuli comes just a day after the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) paid 30m/- fine for former Chadema Secretary General Vicent Mashinji, who was also convicted with similar charges together with Msigwa and other seven senior party officials.
CCM Ideology and Publicity Secretary Humphrey Polepole led a delegation from the party’s Dar es Salaam Region to the court to make the payment arrangements.
Mr Polepole pointed out that since being a CCM son, Dr Mashinji was a completely new person, but he believes in the rule of law and hard working to bring immediate developments to the people.
“We as a Party stand by him. After the verdict we did not have a good time to motivate ourselves so we could come and help our colleague against imprisonment. Congratulations to our fellow members of the Dar es Salaam region who made the effort to raise funds,” he said.
As a representative of the leadership of the ruling party, he said, they successfully followed the judicial process and have paid the fine to the bank as required.
Having been released from prison, Dr Mashinji thanked the ruling party for efforts made to ensure he joined back his family as a freeman and that he was ready to offer his cooperation with the party for developments of the people.
There were reports that Chadema members are organising themselves to raise a total of 320m/- to pay for other convicts and three of them managed to get out of prison yesterday.
They are Halima Mdee, the MP for Kawe, Ester Bulaya, who is MP for Bunda Urban and MP for Tarime Urban, Ester Matiko.
Others, including National Chairman Freeman Mbowe are still in prison serving the custodian sentence.
Other convicts are John Mnyika, the newly elected Secretary General, Salum Mwalimu, who is Deputy Secretary General (Z anzibar) and John Heche, the MP for Tarime Rural.
The Magistrate convicted the political leaders of 12 out of 13 sedition, rioting, incitements to commit offences and unlawful assembly charges after the prosecution proved the case beyond reasonable doubts.
He sentenced them to pay a total of 350m/- fine or go to jail for 60 months cumulatively.
According to the judgment delivered by Principal Resident Magistrate Thomas Simba, Mbowe is to pay 70m/-, Mdee 40m/-, Heche 40m/-, Msigwa 40m/-, Bulaya 40m/-, while Matiko, Mwalimu, Mnyika and Mashinji are to pay fine of 30m/- each, thus making a total of 350m/-.
