By Never Kadungure
A member of the notorious Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) who denounced President Robert Mugabe for using them to kill opposition activists was murdered and dumped in the Mwerahari River in Buhera.
Several weeks ago Innocent Makamure opened up to the media and confessed to how he and other CIO agents felt used by the regime to torture, harass and kill members of the MDC party led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Makamure had even expressed his wish to apologize to the chief in the area for his part in the abuses. Immediately after his confession he went missing. But on Monday this week his dead body was found floating in the Mwerahari River, after family members intensified their searches.
Independent radio station, Radio VOP which broadcasts from outside the country spoke to Manicaland Police spokesperson inspector Philip Makomeke who said they had not yet received confirmation from police at Murambinda Growth Point that the dead body found was that of Makamure.
“All we have is that Makamure is on our missing persons list. I am yet to check whether he is the one who was found dead on Monday. If someone is highly frustrated or mentally disturbed, there are chances that such a person can commit suicide,” Makomeke said.
The murder is reminiscent to that of Ignatius Mushangwe, a Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) official who disappeared after leaking information on how Mugabe had planned to rig the 2008 elections. His dead and partially burnt body was dumped in a bush near Norton.
Evidence which later emerged suggested Mushangwe was murdered by a hit-squad from the military intelligence allegedly led by one Staff Sergeant Makwande to silence him in an operation approved by the Joint Operations Command (JOC). A senior intelligence source at the time told the Zimbabwe Times website that his murder was “a dry operation, a dry disposal,” which he described as an assassination carried out in a hurry. Nehanda Radio
