(MISA/IFEX) – A plot hatched by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) to kill the editor-in-chief of “The Daily News”, Geoffrey Nyarota, has been exposed by the hired assassin. The assassin, Bernard Masara, 35, told the “Daily News” that he developed cold feet and could not carry out the killing. Not only did he expose the […]
(MISA/IFEX) – A plot hatched by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) to kill the editor-in-chief of “The Daily News”, Geoffrey Nyarota, has been exposed by the hired assassin. The assassin, Bernard Masara, 35, told the “Daily News” that he developed cold feet and could not carry out the killing.
Not only did he expose the plot, he also identified the senior CIO officer directly involved and provided the names of four war veterans recruited for the assignment – and their national registration numbers. To prove the authenticity of his story, the would-be
assassin called his CIO handler on the phone and, while the senior editors of “The Daily News” listened in astonishment to the conversation on a speakerphone, he discussed details of the assassination with him.
Masara told the newspaper that he was recruited by the CIO to liquidate Nyarota in order to silence “The Daily News” because it had “become a formidable opponent of government.” Masara said the deputy director of the CIO, Robert Manungom, had told him that Nyarota had to be eliminated because “The Daily News” was acting like “a political commissar” of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Masara said that he met the rest of the hired hitmen on 31 July 2000, and one of them revealed that he had since secured a rifle which allegedly was unlicenced. Masara said the man suggested it might be better to carry out the assignment at Nyarota’s home early in the morning, rather than at “The Daily News” offices.
Nyarota has said that he was at a complete loss as to what this assignment was expected to achieve and said that he did not see how eliminating him could be expected to improve the state of Zimbabwe’s economy or change the fortunes of the government.
