The headquarters of the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (PODEMOS) was set on fire in the Soalpo neighborhood in the city of Chimoio, Manica province, in central Mozambique.

A publication by RFI says that the members of the extra-parliamentary party who were at the scene attribute the crime, which took place in the early hours of Saturday (23), to a group of police officers, five of whom had their faces covered but were in full costume.

A witness to the scene says that "those people, we don't recognize them by their faces, but by their clothes we don't, that they are policemen who came to do this vandalism here".

According to the party's political delegate in Manica, Elton Forquilha, citing witnesses, after breaking some of the window panes, the alleged police officers threw homemade bombs inside the house that served as the PODEMOS headquarters in the Soalpo neighborhood.

"Having to go through this is complicated, it's sad, and what's even sadder is knowing that the same people who say they were policemen set the fire there," he lamented.

The police, through the head of public relations at the provincial command in Manica, Mouzinho Manasse, confirms the incident and guarantees that the investigation is underway, but denies that they were agents of the corporation.

"It's a suspicion they have. We call on them to bring proof. In recent days, there have been fires at the headquarters of Frelimo party committees and now we have this situation with the PODEMOS party," he said.

The perpetrators abandoned bottles containing fuel, matchboxes and other material such as hammers used to vandalize and set fire to the PODEMOS headquarters in the Soalpo district of Chimoio.

This incident comes a month after the disputed results of the presidential elections resulted in demonstrations across the country.

(Photo DR)