A Windhoek driving instructor is seeking N$800 000 from the Namibian Police in a lawsuit for arresting, detaining, and assaulting him in May.

Leopard Ndafediva, through his lawyer Ileni Velikoshi, claims that he was unlawfully arrested, detained and assaulted following an argument with an undercover officer in Windhoek on 6 May.

Narrating his story in court papers, Ndafediva says on the day in question, he went to Katutura police station to get his personal papers certified as true copies of the originals. 

Arriving at that police station parking lot, a motor vehicle driven by a woman unknown to him, suddenly parked in the driveway obstructing his way. 

The ‘lady’ allegedly disembarked from the motor vehicle and walked to another vehicle that was parked in the parking lot.

He then instructed the woman to move her car from the driveway so he could pass and park his car in the parking lot. This sparked a disagreement between
them.

She believed Ndafediva had talked to her in an impolite and disrespectful manner.

Eventually, the woman drove her car out of the driveway and parked it, allowing him to access the parking.

 She exited her car and waited for the plaintiff to exit his and they both went into the police station.

“Plaintiff (Ndafediva) got out of the vehicle and was walking towards the charge office when the lady poked him with what seemed to be a two-way communication radio. The plaintiff informed the lady that she should not poke him like that and told her to go ‘f**k herself’,” reads the documents.

While inside the police station, the woman informed him that he will not be assisted. Ndafediva later realised that she was a police officer.

It was at that moment that officer Sakaria Naikaku began to push him out of the station. 

“The plaintiff was manhandled by the third defendant as he was attempting to capture the incident on his mobile phone. The third defendant (Naikaku) additionally took the plaintiff’s mobile phone and demanded that he provide proof of purchase as ‘proof of ownership’ of the cell phone,” narrated Velikoshi.

He was arrested for obstructing a police officer on duty and crimen injuria and detained without a warrant of arrest.

He was then taken to Wanaheda police station where he was detained from 6 to 9 May.

Later, the police issued him with a notice to appear in court on the same charges on 5 June. He was also given the notice to pay a N$1 000 admission of guilt fine.

“The assault, arrest and subsequent detention were malicious and unlawful alternatively executed without an authorised warrant of arrest and detention and alternatively wrongful,” said Velikoshi.

Thus, he seeks the court to grant an order for payment of N$800 000, for impairment of dignity, loss of freedom, deprivation of his freedom of movement, pain, suffering, psychological trauma, and disrupted business activities. -mamakali@nepc.com.na