NEFF condemns police shooting of suspected robbers

The president of the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF), Epaphras Mukwiilongo, has described the police’s killing of five suspected robbers at Okahandja on Tuesday as disturbing.

The five suspected robbers were fatally shot during an alleged exchange of gunfire with members of the Namibian Police and the Windhoek City Police at Okahandja.

Mukwiilongo said on Thursday that the police followed “these young boys” from Windhoek before they arrived at the place they were allegedly going to rob.

“They decided to shoot them and took the lives of these young boys. I don’t know what’s the issue with the Namibian Police and the youth,” he said.

Mukwiilongo said one of the causes of the youth getting involved in crime was unemployment.
“Why did they not allow the guys to arrive at the place they were going to rob and catch them red-handed? What if they were not going there, why did they not inform the police at Okahandja instead of taking guns?” he said.

The police have so far not provided any more details regarding the incident. Namibian Police inspector general Joseph Shikongo also remains mum on the matter.

Mukwiilongo claimed: “Some of those [police] officers bribe criminals and ask them to give them money after a successful heist for them not to go ahead with their cases. If they [robbers] refuse, they threaten to make life difficult for the robbers.”
He also said killing five people at once indicates there is criminality in the police force.

“That’s a total lie, those boys did not shoot.

“How will they shoot if they did not even steal anything, people will only shoot if they could have robbed something. This is a deadly killing from the police, those boys did not shoot at all, the police just suspected and started shooting,” he said.

“Chinese steal our natural resources every day during broad daylight, but the police never stop their trucks or arrest them, but now they are killing young people for alleged suspicious [sic] robbery,” he said.