Ndongala (photo above), leader of the small party Christian Democracy
(DC) and one of the staunchest supporters of self-proclaimed president
Tshisekedi, was declared a fugitive from justice by DRC Attorney
General Flory Kabange Numbi at a press conference Thursday, June 28.
According to Kabange and to the father of the two minor girls
appearing by the their dad's side with blurred faces on prime time
national television on the same Thursday, Diomi Ndongala is alleged to
have committed statutory rape on both underage girls in the night of
Monday, June 25.
In its initial report on the sex scandal embroiling the opposition
leader, Radio Okapi quotes AG Kabange remarking that, "It appears from
a quick [police] interrogation that it wasn't the first time [the
sisters] had criminal sexual relations with Diomi Ndongala. [His]
bodyguard and his security guard have confirmed the facts, saying that
MP Diomi Ndongala was present on the scene with those girls. Crime
scene investigation police have seized evidence, including
sex-enhancing drugs, the condoms used, and pornographic CDs--as well
as telephone records of calls placed by Diomi to those two girls."
The crime scene described by Kabange is eerily reminiscent of the
crime scene Kinshasa police had initially claimed to have found in the
car and by the body of human rights activist Floribert "Flori"
Chebeya, apparently assassinated in by rogue cops in June 2010--though
the family of the deceased, human rights groups and a recent
documentary claim it was "state crime." The case is now being retried
on appeal.
This uncanny resemblance is now being repeated ad nauseum by Diomi
Ndongala's party and other opposition leaders in the media
damage-control campaign they've launched as soon as news of the
scandal hit the airwaves.
Opposition leaders brushed off the rape charges as a "cabal" and a
"frame-up" at their press conference of Saturday, June
30--coincidentally DRC Independence Day, which was marked without
festivities countrywide, in solidarity with Congolese citizens of the
war-stricken Kivu provinces.
AG Kabange is urging Diomi to come out of hiding and to surrender to
authorities.
But Freddy Kita, Secretary General of the Christian Democracy, in a
statement posted on that party's website, is accusing Colonel Célestin
Kanyama aka "esprit de mort" [spirit of death]-- commander of the
eastern Kinshasa police area of Lukunga--of abducting Diomi in the
evening of Wednesday, June 27.
Colonel Kanyama is reported to have led a 40-strong police squad into
the premises of CD party to search Diomi's offices for evidence of the
alleged crime on Tuesday.
In a subsequent report, citing one source close to the investigation,
Radio Okapi reported that the alleged crimes started more than a week
ago.
In the first encounter, Diomi is alleged to have talked the two
underage sisters into entering his party's office where he offered
them drinks laced with rape drugs and then raped them.
During the second encounter that took place in the evening of Monday,
June 25, Diomi is once again alleged to have raped the two sisters.
The following morning, the father of the two underage girls noticed
that his daughters showed signs of physical malaise.
He confronted them and found a large sum of money in their hand bags.
At which point the two sisters then broke down and "confessed" to
their dad, who then reported the alleged crime to the police.
As of this writing, Diomi is still wanted by the police, whereas the
opposition claims he's in police custody and are warning the public
and human rights groups that there might be foul play afoot.
The opposition charges that the regime wants to silence Diomi, its
uncompromising regime, for the following reasons:
1) Though an MP-elect of the Funa constituency of Kinshasa, Diomi has
vowed never to take his seat in the current National Assembly as long
as Tshisekedi has not been recognized as the real winner of the
November 2011 presidential election. He also barred the two other
members of his party elected last November from taking their seats in
Parliament.
2) Diomi launched in February the political platform called "Popular
Presidential Majority" (MPP)--a parody of Kabila's Presidential
Majority (MP)--that is supposed to fight "to restore the truth" of the
November 2011 elections.
3) In April, Diomi was rumored to be the presumptive Prime Minister
Etienne Tshisekedi was poised to appoint any time.
4) Diomi achieved a real coup on Friday, June 28, when he had
Tshisekedi and his wife Maman Marthe come out of seclusion to attend
the mass for peace in eastern DRC celebrated at the Catholic
Cathédrale Notre-Dame du Congo, in the Lingwala Commune of Kinshasa.
Well, maybe those impunity-inclined Congolese politicos should try
laying out face to face their irrefutable arguments of the frame-up by
the regime to the outraged father who is convinced that his two
underage girls had fallen prey to a maniacal sexual predator and
pedophile.
***
PHOTO CREDITS: John Bompengo/Radio Okapi
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