While her mother says the dead girl, Ndeshihafela Sadrach, was a minor, there is contradictory documentary evidence on her date of birth Acting PG John Walters said yesterday he had recommended that Inspector General Lucas Hangula "look into the possibility of taking disciplinary action" against his former deputy.

However, Nghiishililwa has resigned from the Police since news of the controversy broke.

Walters said the investigation into the suicide of Sadrach found no evidence to support criminal charges.

Nghiishililwa, who quit in the wake of public debate about older men having affairs with school-going children, could have been charged internally for tarnishing the image of the Police because of the relationship with a pupil widely seen as a minor.

She was a Grade 10 pupil at the Augustineum Secondary School.

Walters said documents submitted to his office, with the inquest docket, showed "sufficient evidence" supporting Nghiishililwa's assertion that Sadrach was 20 years and three months when she hanged herself at a house in Suiderhof, Windhoek in early June.

An inquest has found that no one was to blame for her death.

A doctor's note stated she was neither pregnant nor HIV positive.

But Sadrach's uncle, Swapo Ndume, criticised the Police for failing to tell him of the inquest hearing despite having applied to be "notified".

Her age remains in dispute - 1983, 1984 and 1986 have all been mentioned as her dates of birth.

Nghiishililwa resigned before the inquest was completed on September 5.

Appearing relaxed at his Klein Windhoek home yesterday the former Major-General, who is a lawyer by profession, was adamant that Sadrach was not a minor.

But the girl's mother, Veronika Nghishikungu, maintains that she gave birth to Sadrach on March 3, 1986.

An application for the late registration of birth that the mother and father submitted to the Department of Civic Affairs in 1995 states she was born in 1983.

However, a birth certificate issued by the same Department of Civic Affairs says that she was born in 1986.

The Bishop of the Anglican church, Shihala Nehemiah Hamupembe and the pastor of Odibo Village Parish, where Sadrach was baptised, said in sworn statements that the baptism register showing she was baptised in May 1983 was "the original" and had not been tampered with.

A 65-year-old man, Thimotheus Joseph Moshana, said he was approached in 1983 to "witness" the baptism of Ndeshihafela Sadrach.

"I have not doubt that it was in 1983 and not in 1986.

The one who is saying she was born in 1986 is confused," Moshana said in the sworn statement.

Her school records said that Sadrach was born on December 18, 1984.

Nghiishililwa said yesterday the wrong date of birth was being advanced by people who wanted "to portray me in a bad light".

The suicide ignited a debate about "sugar daddies" - older men who shower school girls with money and material things to win their hearts.

Nghiishililwa said yesterday that though he supported Sadrach financially he did not try to buy her love.

"I am a strict person.

I don't spoil even my own children," said Nghiishililwa, who added that contrary to the mother saying she did not know him, he had even helped her to keep away her relatives who wanted to take away property after Nghishikungu's husband died last year.

He had helped her as a mother-in-law, maintaining that Sadrach was his fiancee, Nghiishililwa said.

"I strongly feel this was a character assassination of myself for reasons unknown to me.

I have never quarrelled with my accusers".

In the wake of the apparent scandal, he resigned as Deputy Inspector General in charge of Operations with the rank of Major-General.

Nghiishililwa yesterday disclosed the reasons for his resignation saying he wanted "to maintain the image of the Government and that of the Police, in particular, and the interest of the public prevails over my interests".

Inspector General Hangula accepted the resignation "with honour".

He now runs an industrial relations consultancy.

He is one of very few top Government leaders, if not the only one, to have resigned because of a scandal.

Other top Government officials, including politicians have kept their jobs even in the face of apparent corrupt practices.

"There are some individuals with the wrong interpretation of my character.

The only problem is that I am a straightforward person," he said in an interview.

" I am a good person," he declared.

As proof of his good character he said he had helped to bring development projects too Omungwelume village - a dam, a library, and a yearly soccer tournament for the past three years.

He was also a co-ordinator of a committee on tarring a road between Ongenga and Oshakati.

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