The opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has claimed that its member, Felix Biri was on Thursday 29 September 2022 kidnapped by ZANU PF members in Nyatsime.
In a statement see by Pindula News, the party led by Nelson Chamisa, a former Minister of ICT, Postal and Courier Services during the Government of National Unity (GNU) said its security team was seized with the matter. Reads the statement:
ALERT: We have received a report that CCC member, Felix Biri has been kidnapped by Zanu PF members in Nyatsime this afternoon. He has been taken to a base where he’s being beaten by these thugs. Our security team is currently on its way to secure his release.
This is one of many abduction cases which the party has reported in recent years.
The opposition and some human rights defenders claim that the government is responsible for many kidnappings in the country.
Meanwhile, the government has previously denied the accusations blaming “a third force” conducting the alleged abductions to soil its image.
The government also reckons the opposition stage the abductions to gain political mileage.
Some of the people alleged to have been abducted by state security operatives are Itai Dzamara (a journalist), Joana Mamombe (an MP), Cecilia Chimbiri, Netsai Marova, Moreblessing Ali and now wheelchair-bound human rights defender Tatenda Mombeyarara.
Dzamara was allegedly kidnapped by suspected state security agents on the 9th of March in 2015, his whereabouts are not known since then.
Moreblessing Ali, a CCC activist from Nyatsime was kidnapped in May this year and her mutilated body was discovered in a disused well weeks later. Her killer, Pius Mukandi alias Jamba, alleged to be a ZANU PF member, was arrested.
Nyatsime has become a warzone since Ali’s death.