Placido Hilukilwa
AN unidentified Namibian citizen, who reached retirement age recently, was kidnapped Friday by men who identified themselves as police officers and who coerced him to pay a huge amount of money before dropping him off.
It all started at Oshakati Friday morning and ended at Ondangwa that same day in the afternoon.
It is alleged that the unidentified victim reached retirement age recently and owns a vehicle, a Nissan Note, but possesses no valid driver’s license. He hires casual drivers to drive him around.
It is further alleged that the victim and his casual driver were stopped by two men travelling in a white Toyota Corolla, the so-called “Dankie Botswana” at Ehenye location of Oshakati.
The men identified themselves as police officers and brandished what appeared to be police appointment letters.
The casual driver was pushed out of the car and the vehicle was taken over by one of the “police officers” with the car owner as passenger.
He was allegedly told that he is suspected of having defrauded government of a lot of money.
The Nissan Note was parked at the Ongwediva police station and the two “officers” and the victim proceeded to Ondangwa using the Dankie Botswana.
They stopped briefly at the Ondangwa police station before proceeding to a commercial bank branch where the victim was ordered to withdraw N$ 25 000.
The “officers” took the money plus the victim’s bank card and ID then dropped him off near the Ondangwa airport allegedly claiming that they have other urgent cases to investigate.
A police source said that the bank card, in possession of the unknown suspects since Friday, was used Saturday to withdraw N$14 900, bringing the total amount of stolen money to N$39 900.
“There are no Dankie Botswana’s in the Namibian Police vehicle inventory. Plus, police officers do not demand and do not receive money ‘in the bush’. Things are done in the police office,” said NamPol’s Frieda Ashiyana.
She said that crooks target recently retired people, threatening them with long prison terms for imaginary crimes unless they pay a set amount of money.
Her advice to whoever finds him or herself face to face with crooks pretending to be police investigators is: “Don’t succumb to pressure. Don’t give them your hard-earned money. Let them rather arrest you. Let them prove the crime you allegedly committed, and if there is money to be paid, let it be done legally, in the relevant office,” she said.
