Deci member riot in city as MPs speak out

Police opened fire to disperse riotous members of the Development for Entrepreneurship Community Initiative (Deci) who staged a violent protest yesterday against their delayed refunds in Dar es Salaam.

The violence broke out as some MPs attacked the Government in parliament for dragging its feet in closing the company for operating an illegal pyramid scheme.

At the company�s headquarters yesterday morning, angry members of the scheme damaged vehicles and destroyed property belonging to the disgraced firm, as they demanded their refunds.

Thousands of them countrywide had pumped in millions of shillings into the banned �sow and reap� investment scheme before the Government shut it down.

In parliament, opposition MPs lashed out at the Government and Bank of Tanzania (BoT) for �keeping quite� while the company was ripping off its members.

"The Government has to take the blame for the Deci scandal. The Ministry of Finance and Bank of Tanzania knew what was happening but ignored it," Mr Hamad Rashid, the official opposition spokesperson in parliament said.

He added: "They only appear to be acting now when thousands of people have already been conned, and now they are not being responsible enough to facilitate the refunds."

The CUF lawmaker said stern measures should be taken against the responsible central bank officials who were supposed to advise the Government to stop the scheme early.

Last week, the desperate Deci members said they would take their issue to parliament, which convened yesterday for the budget session in Dodoma, as their hope for refunds continued to fade.

A registration exercise for the refunds has not done much to the majority of the distraught members, other than seeing them queuing everyday at the company�s branches countrywide.

And yesterday, they caught the police off guard in the morning when they stormed into the company�s Mabibo premises and started throwing stones, smashing car windows and damaging buildings.

After the police's arrival, the rowdy members vented their anger on the law enforcement officers and a group of journalists who were covering the incident.

One person was injured and rushed to hospital as the police fired into the air to quell the chaos. The officers who first arrived at the scene had to call for reinforcements after they had failed to control the riot.

Three vehicles with heavily armed anti-riot police arrived at the offices in time to curb extensive damage to property. The police arrested one of the suspected ringleaders before finally dispersing the mob.

Deci had 37 branches across the country with over 500,000 members who are demanding over Sh14 billion in refunds.

Following the company's closure, the Government froze the company directors' personal bank accounts in a bid to raise funds to pay back the members.

But since then it has been a war of words between the Government and directors with the latter accusing the company owners of not releasing the list of members to facilitate the refunds.

Last Wednesday, the executive director of the company, Mr Timothy Ole Loiting'ye told the angry members the registration exercise had been completed and all documents submitted to a committee formed to probe the scheme.

And the Director of Criminal Investigations, Mr Robert Manumba, said the committee was still working on the matter.

Finance and Economic Affairs Mustafa Mkulo previously hinted the Government would issue a statement on the investigations during the budget session.

Apparently, the issue has been politicised with some MPs and politicians saying they feared to make any comments or act since the issue could scuttle their re-election bid in next year's general election.

Some MPs in Dodoma gave The Citizen the "No comment" response when asked to comment on the issue, but clearly expressed their political fears.

However, outspoken Chadema MP for Kigoma North, Mr Zitto Kabwe, said while he would not take sides, he felt the Government could have avoided the scandal had it reacted quickly.

"Obviously the Government made a gross mistake by not intervening much earlier. Where were the Financial Intelligence Unit and police when the firm conned all these people?" he queried.

But CCM legislator for Rombo constituency, Mr Basil Mramba, blamed the investors: "I do not want to talk about that rubbish. People should be able to know a pyramid scheme when they face one. They knew such schemes are illegal," he said.

His remarks were echoed by MP John Cheyo (Bariad east-UDP) who curtly said the Deci issue "is rubbish to me and I have nothing more to say".

Ruling party lawmakers Christopher Ole Sendeka (Simanjiro), William Shelukindo (Bumbuli) and Said Mkumba (Sikonge) refused to comment on the issue.

And another CCM MP, Mr Jackson Makweta (Njombe north) said he knew "very little" about Deci.

"But I do not think it was right for the Government to go out of its way to facilitate the refunds because this can set a bad precedence," he added. Ends

source: citizen