WINDHOEK- Deputy Regional Commander of the Namibian Police in the Otjozondjupa Region, Wataurua Mavenjono said the police will not investigate allegations of bribery leveleed against them.
There are allegation that police in the region took bribes, whenever Karl Eichhoff (31) shot and killed dogs belonging to blacks in the past. A week ago Eichhoff shot dead cattle herder Axarob Slinger (52) and his three dogs in what appears to have been a racially motivated crime, which has sent shock waves through Namibia.
Last week Thursday Eichhoff appeared in the Okahandja Magistrate’s Court on a charge of murder. Apart from the slaying of Slinger, Eichhoff also shot three dogs named Sorry, Meme and Meisie, which belonged to the deceased. He also tried to conceal the crime by burying the victim and the three dogs in an aardvark burrow. Hitjivirue Mungendje, who is Slinger’s neighbour, said she is still seething with anger over the murder. “This was a bomb waiting to explode,” she charged, adding it was not the first time the accused had shot at their dogs as he had apparently done so with impunity in the past. “This family used to bribe the police to get out of trouble,” she said. According to Mungendje and others they have reported several shooting incidents over the past two years and when the community made follow-up inquiries on the cases, the dockets mysteriously disappeared from the police station and the community suspects bribery could be involved.
Mavenjono dismissed the allegations, saying they are baseless and that the police will only look into the allegations if members of the community can provide concrete evidence that a particular officer has been taking bribes in order to make police dockets disappear. “People respond to things differently when they are angry, so for me these are just angry responses for now,” he said. Last week a residents of Okamangogua accused the police of accepting bribes from the Eichhoff family resulting in dockets disappearing mysteriously.
By Kuzeeko Tjitemisa