Mengi: My life is in danger

Dar es Salaam (The Citizen). Executive Chairman and owner of IPP Limited, Mr Reginald Mengi, yesterday said his life was in danger.

He said, his fear comes after sources quoted by one local Kiswahili newspaper story claiming that ACT-Wazalendo party leader Zitto Kabwe, told President Jakaya Kikwete that he (Mr Mengi) was behind a plot to weaken the government but the authorities have remained quiet.

Speaking to journalists in his office, Mr Mengi said that, the paper which claimed to have sourced the story from State House said that Mr Kabwe while serving as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) told President Kikwete about the matter after he tabled the Escrow scandal report in the Parliament.

“The story which the paper claimed to have sourced its information from the State House claimed that I have also been telling Zitto to destroy the government and that I promised to deal with the President after he finishes his second term.

“The news has saddened me, but it has also put me in fear because according to this story, President Kikwete swore to also deal with me,” said Mr Mengi.

Mr Mengi, who didn’t want to respond to questions nor clarify anything from journalists said that he cannot take the news for granted for such statements from the Head of State can be received as an order to the law enforcers.

“For example, in 1170, Archbishop of Canterbury in the UK was killed after the guards heard the King say: can’t someone help me get rid of that stubborn fellow and the guards thought it was a command to kill the priest, and they killed him,” said Mr Mengi.

Contacted for comment, the deputy director for Presidential Communications, Ms Premy Kibanga, dismissed the accusations.

For his part, ACT-Wazalendo party leader Mr Kabwe, said that the story was misleading, but promised to clarify during his rally in Mwanza this Sunday.

“What I can tell is that the owner of this paper wants to ruin my good relationship with Mr Mengi and the President,” he said.