HARARE - Police have said they will not release the MDC vehicles they impounded in the run up to the 2008 Presidential run off until “outstanding” cases against the party officials have been finalised. Wayne Bvudzijena, the police spokesman, said the calls for the release of the two trucks belonging to MDC youth league and Matabeleland North province, respectively, were premature.

 “There is no way we can release those vehicles because the matter has not been concluded yet. I want to make it clear that a police officer will investigate or arrest where there is reasonable suspicion of an offence,” said Bvudzijena. But the MDC Matabeleland North leadership insists that police are out of step because the courts ruled that their party officials, who had been arrested on the day the vehicles were seized, had been released. Police were told to proceed by way of summons.The MDC argues therefore that the cars should be released since two years have elapsed without any investigations by the security agents.

 However, Bvudzijena dismissed as nonsense claims by the MDC that police were acting on the orders of senior politicians to hang onto the cars. “No one arrests on the orders of someone. It is not true that police officers take orders from their seniors or politicians; they dutifully do their job,” he said. The two trucks were impounded by police and intelligence operatives in Lupane in 2008 in the run-up to the bloody Presidential run-off. An armoured top of the range BMW X5 which the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was using for campaigning was also impounded.

 A South African businessman based in Johannesburg, has since been issued with a subpoena as part of the verification exercise. The car is still stationed at Lupane Police station. Tsvangirai had been offered the BMW by a philanthropic businessman in South Africa at the height of the violence which rocked the Presidential runoff. Shocked by the grotesque images of his supporters who were either killed or injured in the orgy, Tsvangirai withdrew from the race leaving President Robert Mugabe as the sole candidate.

The one- man election was widely condemned by the international support groups who dismissed it as a sham. Tsvangirai had earlier on March 29 defeated Mugabe but came short of claiming outright victory to guarantee a passage to the state house. Meanwhile, MDC deputy organising secretary, Morgen Komichi, has been remanded out of custody to December 9 by a Hwange magistrate. Komichi, who was among the people arrested and released in 2008 when police seized the MDC vehicles, is facing charges of allegedly threatening Police Officer Commanding Matabeleland North Senior Assistant Commissioner Edmore Veterai.

By Daily News