Tsumeb
Members of the Oshikoto police have confiscated various weapons from learners across the region through the ongoing school campaigns to sensitise the community and learners about the consequences of committing crime with lethal weapons, such as knives.
According to Oshikoto’s regional police commander, Commissioner Annamarie Nainda, the campaign has reduced the crime rate significantly in the local communities, because some offences were predominantly being committed by schoolgoing children.
Apart from knives the police seized screwdrivers, bottles and handmade traditional guns.
“The awareness campaign does not solely focus on doing body searches at schools, but the weapons that are being confiscated during these times clearly show how fruitful the whole campaign is,” Nainda said, urging young people to refrain from criminal activities and not to carry weapons, because such acts have long-term consequences, such as not completing one’s schooling.
“This is the second part of the campaign where we are focusing on primary and combined schools, but what is puzzling is that most of the weapons are being confiscated from young ones, as compared to the first campaign, where we dealt with senior pupils,” added the police commissioner.
Other topics addressed under the campaign are vandalism of government properties, frequenting of shebeens, possession of explosive ordinance and unsafe sexual practices, among others.
In an unrelated development, the commissioner called upon anyone who lost a herd of goats to contact the nearest police station, as some of the livestock in the possession of the police do not have ear tags for identification. The goats were found at Farm Excelsiors some 30 km from Tsumeb on the road that leads to Tsintsabis.