Eveline de Klerk
WALVIS BAY – Two police officers based in Walvis Bay appeared last week in the Swakopmund Magistrate’s Court charged under the Anti-Corruption Act.
This after the two policemen seized N$236 000 which a suspect robbed from a Chinese businessman, but which they (the two policemen) did not hand over to the police authorities for safekeeping as evidence.
The two constables Jafet Haimbodi and Lukas Andreas were charged with three counts each, theft by false pretence, contravening the Anti-Corruption Act which deals with the corrupt use of office or position for personal gratification and defeating the course of justice.
Contrary to earlier reports that the duo were involved in an armed robbery of a Chinese national in Oshikango last week, the two apparently seized about N$236 000 from one of the initial suspects who carried out the robbery in Oshikango in the Ohangwena Region, and his brother.
Setting the record straight over the weekend Detective Chief Inspector Erastus Iikuyu of the Namibian Police Force (NamPol) in the Erongo Region said the police officers were not part of the robbery as initially stated in the media.
According to Iikuyu the robbery was carried out by two suspects, one of whom is a female.
She was arrested and N$170 000 was confiscated from her. The other suspect fled to Swakopmund with his brother and the rest of the money.
“It is not yet clear as to how the two police officers knew about the whereabouts of the two suspects, but what we gathered so far is that the police officers apparently went to the room of the two suspects in Swakopmund and confiscated the money from the suspects without charging them or reporting the matter,” Iikuyu said.
He said a case of robber was already opened last week in the Ohangwena Region against the two initial suspects as well as their friend.
Haimbodi was arrested last week Friday through an identification parade while Andreas was arrested on Monday.
The case was postponed to February 9 for further police investigations.
Both suspects remain in police custody.