Telecoms company 'had hand' in Tanzania opposition leader's assassination attempt

By Our Correspondent, DAR ES SALAAM Tanzania

Tanzania main opposition party CHADEMA Vice Chairman, Tundu Lissu, has announced that he has instructed his lawyer, Bob Amsterdam, to begin legal proceedings against Millicom, the former parent company of Tanzania’s mobile network provider Tigo, and the Tanzanian government for their alleged involvement in an assassination attempt on his life.

His statement follows revelations in a UK court that claimed that Tigo, under Millicom’s ownership at the time (2017), had provided the Tanzanian government authorities with his daily communication and movements.

On September 7, 2017 his car was sprayed with bullets by unknown assailants, of which 16 bullets entered his body at his residence in the capital city of Dodoma. He subsequently underwent 25 surgeries in Kenya and Belgium hospitals.

A former worker at Tigo's parent company, Millicom told the court this month that Tigo had shared mobile phone data with the government showing the communications and locations of opposition lawmaker Tundu Lissu in the weeks before the attack.

"I have informed (lawyer) Bob Amsterdam today to start a case against Tigo and the government of Tanzania.” Lissu told a news conference in Dar es Salaam, adding that he does not trust local courts to handle the case.

“We will force Tigo to tell us who they were communicating with. Who from the government asked them to track me 24 hours. They have to tell us names." He insisted.

In its own court filings this month, Millicom said it had learned in late August or early September 2017 of concerns "about a local politician’s mobile phone data being passed to a government agency".

It said the individuals involved were disciplined and additional training was provided to Millicom subsidiaries about how to respond to requests for company data.

The court filings were first reported on Tuesday by British newspaper The Guardian.

The then Tanzania's president John Magufuli condemned the attack on Lissu in 2017.

“No one has been arrested or charged in connection with my attack.” Lissu told reporters. Adding that he didn’t go to court because he didn’t have enough evidence. “But now we have sufficient evidence to file the case.” He said.

A September 24 article in the newspaper says that the gunmen who tried to assassinate Mr Lissu were able to locate the victim’s whereabouts because the telecoms company secretly passed his mobile phone data to the government.

According to The Guardian, the arrangement, which Tigo does not deny, was revealed in a claim by a former internal investigator for the company that was heard at the Central London employment tribunal this month.

Michael Clifford, a former internal investigator at Millicom and ex-Metropolitan Police officer, claims that Millicom fired him for raising concerns about the affair.

Reacting to the revelations on Wednesday, Mr Lissu said though under Tanzania’s laws such a case would be time-barred, there were provisions in the law that could allow him to proceed on the ground that he has acquired new evidence.

“Cases like these, under our laws, have a three-year statute of limitations from the date of the event. However, the law states that if there was information or evidence that you did not have, the three-year period starts from the day you obtain the new evidence,” Mr Lissu said, noting that the three-year limitation period started counting from Wednesday because he had obtained evidence that he did not have before.

He said he would ask the London Tribunal that’s currently handling the case to compel Millicom to reveal the names of officials that requested for his communication details from Tigo.

“Since Tigo has been mentioned, they must disclose the involved parties. This incident traumatized my family, relatives and Tanzanians,” Mr Lissu said.

Tigo is a telecommunication company in Tanzania, with over 13.5 million registered subscribers to their network, Tigo, directly and indirectly, employs over 300,000 Tanzanians including an extended network of customer service representatives, mobile money merchants, sales agents and distributors.

Tigo is the biggest commercial brand of Millicom, an international company trading in 12 countries with commercial operations in Africa and Latin America and corporate offices in Europe and the USA.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who succeeded Magufuli after his death in 2021, pledged to lift restrictions on government critics imposed by Magufuli, but rights groups say authorities have been targeting opponents before local elections in November this year.

On Monday, Lissu was among several opposition leaders briefly arrested by police before they could march to protest against what they said were killings and abductions of government critics.