President John Magufuli’s fiercest critic Mdude Nyagali has resurfaced seven days after facing his brutal abductors believed to have been sent form the State House.
Mdude is said to have been taken from his Vwawa shop, where he sells software, by masked policemen in two vehicles and driven away.
President Magufuli at the time was having a regional tour of Mbozi district, and word went round that Mdude- a social media influencer would have embarrassed the President by inciting residents.
Thursday morning, a frail Mdude was abducted in May 2 and has never been seen since.
Activists in Tanzania have been rallying support to compel the government to release or divulge the whereabouts of the trader.
At the time of his abduction, the activists foresaw slim chances of him ever returning alive.
“This incident follows an order from above, and Mdude may not be back because the hijackers’ motive is to silence him once and for all. They want to remain unknown but everyone knows who they are and where they are from,” an anonymous informer told Sauti Kuwa.
When relatives and friends went to a local police station to file reports, the police refused to file an official report about his abduction, saying they did not know about it.
This comes a few days after a ruling party zealot openly threatened Mdude’s life on his Facebook page saying “your days are numbered.”
“Mdude, your days are numbered. Soon, you will join your colleague Tundu Lissu,” wrote Abusadik Banzi Banzi
Opposition leader in Tanzania Hon Tundu Lissu was shot multiple times by suspected police officers on an assassination plot in September, 2017.
This came after President Magufuli warned that he would not tolerate dissent.