The Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) Central Committee last week has relieved two of its higher officials of their duties in connection with the ongoing large-scale protests that have swept throughout different parts of the Oromia Regional State since November. They are Office head of OPDO, Daba Debele, and head of the region’s administration and security bureau, Solomon Kuchu.
According to sources, after evaluating the current state of affairs in the Oromia Regional State and the intensifying security situation, the Central Committee of the OPDO criticized both Daba and Solomon for not doing enough to tackle the existing political crisis and the violent turn it had taken.
Eventually, the OPDO named Beker Shale, director general of the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA), as the replacement of Daba and Bezu Wakbeka, Public Mobilization advisor to Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, as the region’s administration and security bureau head.
Beker, who had to leave the top job at the revenues and customs authority, on Monday paid a visit to his new office located off Ras Mekonnen Street inside the recently inaugurated Oromo Cultural Center. The next day, Beker was busy presenting ERCA’s six-month performance report to the Authority’s employees.
Beker entered public service in 1991, as a wereda administrator in his home town, Dodola, West Arsi. For the next six years, Beker worked in various posts in Arsi and Bale. He then moved to the regional level, serving as a police commissioner from 2008 to 2009. After that, his rise to high-level positions began by becoming deputy head for Government Communications Affairs Office under the then head Bereket Simon. Later he was named Mayor of Adama.
Beker has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Organizational Management and a Master’s degree in Leadership.
After assuming his new post, Beker is expected to face a formidable task in resolving the standoff in the region.
Bezu – the other new appointee – is also expected to have a tough responsibility. Prior to being assigned to the Office of the Prime Minster in 2015, he served as head of OPDO’s urban politics and organization division.
Meanwhile, members of the Central Committee of OPDO are currently meeting in Adama. In the closed session, which started on Wednesday, members are expected to confer on the reshuffling of party officials and the recent protests that rocked Oromia.
According to US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) and opposition parties, the protests that erupted in November against the Addis Ababa and Oromia Special Zone Integrated Masterplan claimed the lives of at least 140 people. In addition, more that three thousands people were jailed for taking part in mass anti-government demonstrations, according to opposition parties.
It is to be recalled that the protests against the integrated masterplan first began in April 2014 which left more than a dozen killed in Ambo town, 125km west of Addis Ababa. Protesters fear the plan would enable the capital city to expand into the surrounding Oromia regions at the expense of Oromo farmers, language and culture.
