Somalia: Jubbaland frees opposition MP after protest

KISMAYO, Somalia - The President of Jubbaland, a Federal member State in Southern Somalia, Ahmed Madobe has freed a member of parliament on Sunday night from a prison in Kismayo, Garowe Online reports.

Jubbaland Security forces arrested the regional MP, Ahmed Abdi Hassan [Ahmed Tajir], barely a day after the state parliament has stripped his immunity last Wednesday for allegedly lobbying a vote of no confidence against the cabinet.

On Sunday morning, mutinous soldiers sealed off Fiat prison near Jubbaland Presidential Palace in Kismayo in protest of the MP's detention and demanding his immediate release. He has been behind bars for five days.

President Madobe ordered the release of the lawmaker after his loyalist troops have blocked main roads in the administrative capital Kismayo and brought the normal activities and the public movement to a standstill.

The move came after Madobe received UK's Ambassador, David Concar at the Port Guesthouse in Kismayo on Saturday and discussed the role of regional security forces in Somalia’s National Security Architecture.

Ahmed Tajir, who is a Somali-British and other fellow Jubbaland MPs were reported to have filed a motion of no confidence vote aimed at ousting Jubbaland cabinet over poor leadership, incompetence and nepotism.

Last weekend, President Madobe has issued a travel ban to all lawmakers in a move to silence his critics as tension simmering in the coastal city following the arrest of Ahmed Tajir.

GAROWE ONLINE