Malawi Police shake up Chilobwe station: IG cautions ‘bad apples’

Following an armed robbery incident involving a Malawi Police Officer of Chilobwe Police Station in Blantyre, the country’s security agency has promptly transferred all police officers at the station.

The Station is currently being manned by Malawi Army Officers, who were deployed there Monday morning after reports that some angry Chilobwe residents wanted torch the Station following the robbery incident.

Some officers have transferred to Chileka and Chikuli Police Units.

The shake up also follows Inspector General Paul Kanyama’s warning that ‘bad apples’ will no longer be entertained in the police service.

“The Police Unit will have new officers including the Officer-In-Charge to win back the confidence of the residents,” said one of the senior police officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The law enforces arrested two suspected armed robbers including a police officer identified as Kondwani for allegedly attempting to rob a businessman in Limbe.

The incident  received wide condemnation with some quarters urging the IG to deal with the ‘bad apples’ in the service once and for all.

Kanyama also condemned the involvement of the police officers in criminal and corrupt practices noting that such acts brings the image of the service in disrepute.

He warned his charges that nobody is above the law and anyone found on the wrong side of the law will be dealt with in accordance with the law.

“Our mandate is to enforce the law and not to break it, not to terrorise the very people we are supposed to serve and protect,” said Kanyama.

Meanwhile, the security agency has hailed Kanjeza township residents for assisting the law enforcers in apprehending Guta and his accomplices.

Guta, according to Rhoda Manjolo, national police spokesperson, collected a gun at the Police Unit on Saturday as if he was working outside the station.

He later together with other suspects, who are still at large, went to Yasin Yusuf’s shop in Limbe where they accused him of keeping drugs which after searching were not found.

One of the suspects, who is a woman, is said to have clad in a Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) uniform belonging to Guta’s wife, who once worked for the tax collecting body.

Guta and his accomplices are said to have later taken Yusuf to his house in Kanjeza where the armed police cornered the suspects after Yusuf alerted the law enforcers by pressing an alarm.

Cases of armed robberies have drastically increased of late and just recently in Mzuzu police officers had their guns snatched from them and the guns used to beat the officers to the point of them being admitted to the hospital.

This incident happened a few days after the IG had warned robbers that the police would be after them.