Maravi

Masebo receives death threats

Masebo receives death threats
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sat 30 July 2011, 14:00 CAT

SYLVIA Masebo says she has received death threats and that suspected MMD members broke into her home in what she called President Rupiah Banda’s desperate attempts to intimidate her. In an interview yesterday, Masebo said the damage to her property was politically motivated.

“My home was attacked last Thursday night. I had gone out with my son around 19:30 hours for dinner and when I came back around 22:00 hours, I found my electric gate was broken,” said Masebo, the immediate past member of parliament for Chongwe Constituency.

“The gate was pushed off the rail, was damaged and left half open but nothing had been taken away from the house. And shortly after I arrived home, I received a call and a man came on the phone and he said ‘hold on’. Then there was a lady’s voice and I was being threatened that I should not go into Chongwe, otherwise I would be beaten and killed. When I tried to inquire who was calling, the lady cut the line. I tried to phone back but they had switched off the phone. I know it’s political.”

Masebo said she immediately phoned the police but they said they didn’t have transport and that after about 40 minutes, the police arrived at her residence in a taxi. She gave a statement to them and was given protection throughout the night.

“This morning, I was tipped that my life is in danger and I must be very careful on how I move and what I do,” Masebo said.

“Clearly, we are back to the UNIP days when people were disappearing. You can tell that Rupiah Banda knows that his time is up, so what they are doing is to use political violence. These are the same people who claim that I am not a factor in Chongwe but now they are threatening to kill me should I go to Chongwe. The public should not forget that the MMD have openly vowed to do anything, including using juju against me to win back the Chongwe parliamentary seat,” Masebo said.

Masebo said President Banda and the MMD knew their time in power had ended and were now becoming desperate, hence using violence to intimidate political opponents.

“MMD has declared violence in this election. Unless the police are properly equipped, the elections will not be peaceful. The other day it was Mulongoti, now it’s me. Why should people be threatening?” Masebo asked.

She said the MMD had been lying to the Chongwe electorate that she would stand in Munali constituency when in fact she was re-contesting her seat in Chongwe.

“They are also telling people that I have gone back to MMD when they know that I am not MMD. I am PF. They are pumping in a lot of money in their bid to defeat me. But we will see how far they will go,” said Masebo.

Labels: DEATH THREATS, MMD, SYLVIA MASEBO

posted by MrK @ 11:22 PM