By William Mbangula
OSHAKATI
A police officer who was allegedly implicated in telling scare stories which resulted in an accused person committing suicide, has dismissed the accusations as malicious and baseless.
Sergeant Absalom Kaboy Tobias of the Police Traffic Unit is accused of having scared the late Petrus Ndali Nembiya into committing suicide after Tobias allegedly told him he would be imprisoned following a head-on collision on April 18, 2004 between Ongwediva and Oshakati. Family members of the deceased brought a death note to the offices of New Era last Friday, July 27, in which the police officer is implicated.
According to the family members, Sergeant Tobias, who was the investigating officer in the case, had insisted that the deceased pay him a commission of N$6 000 after already receiving close to N$30 000 in compensation from the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (MVAF) recently.
It is reported that before the matter could be heard on July 19, the police officer approached the deceased to tell him he would be found guilty of causing the accident and would face a maximum punishment of between five and eight years in jail.
A day before the court hearing, Nembiya hanged himself at his home.
The note reads in part:
“I want to leave this small piece of paper so that my family can know why I am doing this. There is one Sergeant Absalom Kaboy Tobias who told me that I am guilty in the pending case of July 19. He told me I will be sentenced from five to eight years in jail. He said I caused the death of the two people who died on the spot. I don t want to go to prison. So, my family, if you want to know why I did this, ask Tobias.”
Approached for comment,the Police Public Relations Officer, Constable Jonas Matheu, confirmed the note which he said was brought to the police by family members the day after the death of Nembiya. He declined to comment further on the content of the note and the allegations made by the family, saying this could jeopardize the pending investigations.
Tobias dismissed the allegations, saying the deceased was only afraid to stand trial because he knew his action had caused the death of two innocent people.
“This note is even questionable,” said Tobias, “since it was only brought to the police a day after the death of Nembiya, and the money mentioned by family members was not contained in the note.
“Again, the MVA did not compensate him because he (Nembiya) was held responsible for the accident. If a claim was submitted, I as the investigating officer would have known because I would have had to sign the claim form. I did not sign such an application form for compensation to the MVA.”
Tobias claimed that the accusations were based on malicious intent because he is just an investigating officer who has no right or power whatsoever to make any court decision about the case. Besides, he cannot tell a person that he would be jailed for between five to eight years. He cannot recall a person in Namibia who received such a maximum prison sentence.
According to Tobias, he was reliably informed that Nembiya committed suicide because his father, a furniture entrepreneur, refused to give him money after having worked for more than four months without pay. This happened, saidTobias, when his case was approaching and he insisted on being paid.
Tobias has also learned that the late Nembiya was taken for counselling and that the money due from his father was identified as one of the issues troubling him. According to Tobias, the death note was an afterthought by the Nembiya family to make him a scapegoat for the death of the young man.
MVA Senior Customer Service Officer, Ntelamo Ntelamo, confirmed to New Era that, according to their records, no such claim was submitted by Nembiya and no payment at all was made to him.