Sheikh Ponda acquitted of sedition rap

01 December 2015

COUNCIL of Islamic Organisation Secretary, Sheikh Ponda Issa Ponda (centre), is mobbed by his supporters after being set free by the Morogoro Resident Magistrates’Court in Morogoro Municipality on Monday.. 

THE Morogoro Resident Magistrate’s Court acquitted the Secretary of Council of Islamic Organisation, Sheikh Ponda Issa Ponda, of seditious charges he was facing.

 

Resident Magistrate-in-Charge Mary Moyo ruled in favour of the Muslim leader after the prosecution “failed to prove the charges against him beyond reasonable doubt.’’ During hearing of the prosecution’s case, the trial attorney, Principal State Attorney Bernard Kongola had called nine witnesses to prove the charges against the accused.

On the defence side, advocates Juma Nassoro and Abubakar Salum, represented Ponda. It was all smiles for Ponda and his followers, who had jammed the court premises, for the judgment. Immediately after the session, Ponda left the area in the company of his advocates.

The armed law enforcers who had escorted him to the court also left in a different direction. Ponda was arraigned in the Morogoro Court on August 19, 2013, facing three counts of disobeying a lawful order and incitement to commit criminal offences.

The prosecution alleged that Ponda committed the offences on August 10, 2013, at Ndege Primary School grounds in Morogoro Municipality.

He allegedly gave seditious statements, inciting the society in contravention of court directives. According to the prosecution, Sheikh Ponda incited Muslim believers not to recognise Mosques Securities formed by the Muslim Council of Tanzania (Bakwata), whom he claimed were puppets of CCM and the government, threatening violence against them if they showed up.

Such statement was allegedly made against the directive of the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam, which on June 2, 2013, convicted him of one count of forcible entry to a plot situated at Chang’ombe area in Temeke District and given a suspended sentence of 12 months.

Apart from the sentence, Resident Magistrate Victorian Nongwa, sitting at the Kisutu Court, had ordered Ponda to refrain from committing any other crime, remain peaceful and behave well in the meantime.

The prosecution had further alleged that at the same place in Morogoro Municipality, Ponda issued seditious statements, saying the government deployed an army to Mtwara to contain chaos caused by residents in the region who were opposing the construction of a gas pipeline from Mtwara to Dar es Salaam.

Ponda was also quoted as alleging that the region’s residents who are 90 per cent Muslims were raped, killed and intimidated while the same was not the case during a conflict between residents of Loliondo, who are 90 per cent Christians, who were opposed to the distribution of a portion of hunting block to an Arab entrepreneur.

In a ruling delivered in July, this year, the magistrate had acquitted Ponda of the offence of disobedience in connection with directives given by the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court after the prosecution failed to show any tangible evidence that would require him to defend himself.