Leave CUF alone, Hamad tells state

injuries or loss of lives that may result if ‘evil’ plans being hatched by controversial chairman Prof Ibrahim Lipumba’s faction succeed.

According to Hamad, there is enough evidence to show that the CUF leadership crisis is being fuelled by the office of the Registrar of Political Parties and security forces.

“We have information that the head of the Registration Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA) is being pushed to dissolve CUF’s board of trustees and replace the members with those picked by Prof Lipumba so they can receive government subsidies on behalf of the party and occupy our headquarters in Zanzibar,” he told a press conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

Hamad appeared to be beset with emotion as he outlined what he described as ‘evil acts’ against the party, asserting that he has spent most of his life fighting for democracy and is ready to defend CUF at any cost.

“I have nothing to fear, especially at this moment in time taking into account the many struggles we (CUF) have undergone and passed,” he said.

In another development, the parliamentary Constitution and Legal Affairs committee has called on the Registrar of Political Parties’ office to
follow procedures when dealing with the CUF leadership crisis.
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The crisis began in August last year when Lipumba announced his intention to be reinstated as party chairman – a position from which he voluntarily resigned a year earlier in protest against the opposition coalition group UKAWA’s nomination of ex-prime minister and former ruling CCM party heavyweight Edward Lowassa as its joint presidential candidate for the October 2015 general election.

Although Lipumba said he had a right to withdraw his resignation letter, a section of CUF’s leadership hierarchy led by secretary general Hamad rejected this claim and arranged a special party meeting to elect a new chairman.

The meeting ended prematurely after Lipumba and his followers invaded the venue, claiming he was the legitimate chairman.

An emergency meeting was held under Hamad in Zanzibar where it was announced that the party memberships of Lipumba and 10 others had been suspended indefinitely for causing the earlier meeting disruption.

Lipumba then filed a petition calling on the Registrar of Political Parties, Judge Francis Mutungi, to intervene in the matter, and Mutungi later issued a statement recognising Lipumba as chairman.

The move did not go down well with the Hamad faction which accused the registrar of deliberately fueling a leadership crisis within the party.

Ever since, Lipumba and his supporters have established their base at the party’s headquarters in Buguruni, Dar es Salaam as divisions in the party’s regional and district branches continue to widen.