Jomic had visited Mudzi to investigate the murder of Nyagura.
Piniel Denga, an MDC MP and member of the Jomic proivincial committee in Mashonaland East, said:"They (people) could not be open to tell us what really happened because of the fear of the unknown. We went to the place where the body was dumped because we were told that he was hit by stones and he fell down and more people came with more stones hitting him in the head, so he passed on closer to someone's homestead and they lifted the body and dumped him on the road."
"It was being narrated by a young boy who is 7 years that we saw him (Nyagura) being ferried and they put him in the road and the police officers came with some branches to safeguard the body from other passersby’s."
"We went there as Jomic with my other colleagues the other two co-chairpersons and people at the venue couldn't …narrate the stories maybe because of fear of the unknown. You can go into the shop and ask them did you see what happened and they would say no, I wasn’t here or I had closed my shop I was inside," he added.
Denga said Nyagura was murdered "just like what happens in these other Muslim countries where if someone has committed a serious crime against their religion could be stoned to death, so that's how it happened".
He said the situation in Mudzi was tense and that police had given the green light for the MDC to hold its rally as well as Zanu (PF) to carry on with their small meeting in a hall at Chimukoko shopping centre, the place where violence broke out.
"The Zanu (PF) youths started throwing stones, taking away the flags from the MDC, burning posters and fliers that the structures had come to distribute. People were beaten, that’s when Mr Nyagura's life was claimed. As it was said by the post mortem he was stoned to death," he said.
But a Zanu (PF) Jomic official, gave a different version of what transpired, saying their findings had shown that Nyagura had fell from a moving truck after he tried to flee from violence at the shopping centre.
"I have a report which doesn't quite go along with what the MDC-T people are saying. We wouldn't want to go much into that because it is still under investigation but according to the information given to us we are told that Cephas Magura actually fell from the truck when he was trying to get on to a truck which was fleeing and the truck was full and that's when he fell to the ground. This is story that we have," a Zanu (PF) official said.
"From what he (Denga) had said you can actually see that there is world of difference, miles apart. So what is important now is to let investigations be carried out and the truth be established."
Jomic co-chair, Thabitha Khumalo, said her organisation condemned the murder of Nyagura and said perpetrators should be brought to book.
"Jomic would like to convey its deepest condolences to the Magura family following the death of Mr Cephas Magura, an MDC-T party official, in a case of suspected political violence in Mudzi, Mashonaland East last week. May his soul rest in peace," Khumalo said.
"The killing was a most deplorable act, especially as the nation prepares for next elections. As Jomic we have made it clear that political violence is a serious crime and those involved should be punished accordingly."
"The blood of any Zimbabwean that is spilt in this country is not worth the elections that will take place. Everybody in terms of the Global Political Agreement has the right to affiliate to a political party of their choice and death should not be the way of deterring any Zimbabwean to participate in the political arena,” she said.
Nyagura was buried in Mudzi on Sunday.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party has said over 300 of their supporters and officials were murdered in the last violent presidential run-off elections in June 2008.
Post published in: News