A few months ago, when OPDO officials adopted dissent voices as their own, I joke-tweeted saying [in AM] “now OPDOs are struggling our struggle; we will see if they would be detained on our behalf”. It seems it has already become true.
Even though many political prisoners are still languishing in jail, most prominent ones are released. In the wake of all these, the Command Post continued to arrest politicians; this time, mostly OPDO members wIth the exception of Seyoum Teshome. Seyoum, in addition to his rejection of the state of emergency, his arrest may be associated with his solidarity to Oromara, an abbreviation to refer to Oromo-Amhara alliance against TPLF and his optimism to ‘Team Lemma’. The rest, I think, is an operation to weaken ‘Team Lemma’ from the bottom.
The news of arrest of Deputy Police Commissioner in Oromia, Mayor of Nekemte and administrator of the zone, East Wallaga Police Commander and others have been heard since the state of emergency was declared; and now Taye Dendea, spokesperson for Oromia Justice Bureau.
The detention of Taye is a special sign because he is one of the hopes behind the glimpse of reform within OPDO. Taye had been arrested twice serving ten years combined. It took him 16 years to have his LLB because he was repeatedly arrested in the middle of his studies. The cause of his arrests were that his dissent had been interpreted as an affiliation to OLF. His promotion as Head to Communication in Justice Bureau of Oromia signaled a commitment to serve justice as this previous victim of the corrupted justice system will not be expected to cooperate with the court system. His arrest will definitely take the hope away.
Taye commented critically on the military operation that took away innocent lives by ‘mistake’ in Oromia. This maybe the immediate cause of his arrest but the bigger picture is that the security apparatus is becoming the last card expected from TPLF.