INDEPENDENT investigations into the kidnapping of Africa’s youngest billionaire, Mohammed Dewji (43), have revealed that he is apparently being held in a secret torture place in Dar es Salam, Tanzania, as abductors demand a lucrative ransom.
Credible sources have informed SAUTI KUBWA that Dewji’s abductors include a gang of rogue elements in Tanzania’s security system closely associated with, and working under directives of, Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Paul Makonda. Divulging no further details, the sources cited a recent bittersweet relationship between the two, and Makonda’s plutomania as reason for the abduction.
Makonda – evidently the most pampered government official by President John Magufuli, and sometimes regarded his most trusted assistant – is reportedly harboring rogue elements within the security system, and he has previously been implicated in using them for some selfish or political gains, for himself or for the president.
For reasons best known to the president, a section of officers in the presidential security unit has been working with Makonda since 2016 – targeting and threatening critical media, individual journalists, artists, activists and politicians, particularly those who are not in the good books of the president.
This is the first time the gang is implicated in kidnapping a high profile businessman. Dewji, popularly known as Mo, was abducted on Thursday morning on 11th October, 2018 as he was about to enter a gym at Collosseum Hotel and Fitness Club in Oysterbay, Dar es Salaam.
The highly guarded hotel with CCVT cameras and physical security officers, is located a few meters from the residences of the vice president and the prime minister. Moreover, it is a stone’s throw away from the headquarters of the Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service (TISS). CCTV cameras at the premises were not functioning at the time of abduction.
The kidnappers had originally planned to perform their action after working hours but, working on intelligence information gathered for weeks from Mo’s closest assistants, they went in the morning.
Related stories from other media:
ABC News story:
BBC story:
Aljazeera story:
In their preliminary reports to the media on Thursday and Friday, police authorities and Makonda had hinted that “two Europeans” had been involved in kidnapping the billionaire. But reliable sources say that was a deliberate move by the system to sway public attention from the real culprits.
The abductors had been spying on Mo’s activities and movements for weeks, using “his own people.” They even managed to steal a blank check book from his office without his knowledge. In torture place, they are apparently forcing him to sign a check (God knows how they expect to cash it anyway, and how many signatures are needed) worthy Tanzanian Shillings 2,000,000,000,000 – about $800,000,000 (the amount which, of course, is highly unrealistic – probably due to the abductors’ ignorance) as condition for his release.
Their earlier plan was to release him on Monday 15th October. Sources say the billionaire has adamantly refused to give in so far. Following their spying action prior to the abduction, they managed to have CCTV cameras disabled, using some hotel security staff.
Unlike in previous incidents where the highest political authorities were implicated in sponsoring abduction, this time they are not involved in the kidnapping saga. It is seemingly a self-enriching scheme, with nothing to do with politics.
One security source told SAUTI KUBWA: “Our hands are tied… We don’t know what the big man has in mind because the crime involves his boy. He has been quiet so far and, as you know, our system is divided. But there are no Europeans, no white or brown people involved; it’s the work of wrong people entrusted with powers in our own system.”
