RUNDU - Three Namibian Police Force (NamPol) officers from the Kahenge district, who are facing several charges of extortion, corruption, robbery and theft, were granted bail of N$2 000 each on Friday.

The newly-appointed police constables were arrested last Monday after they allegedly defrauded business people at the town of Nkurenkuru of goods and money worth more than N$6 000 over the previous weekend.

The town is  situated 130 kilometres west of Rundu.
In her ruling in the Rundu Magistrate’s Court on Friday, Magistrate Hellen Olaiya told the accused that they must not interfere with police investigations or state witnesses.

The other bail condition was that the accused police officers do not leave the district of Rundu without informing the investigating officer, Inspector Kenneth Simbwaye.

The magistrate then postponed the case to September 23 to enable the officers to obtain legal representation.
The police officers are alleged to have introduced themselves to business people using their appointment certificates on July 07, 2012.

They told four Chinese shop owners there that they were busy with an ‘operation’ before ordering them to hand over some money, or else to have their merchandise confiscated.

The shop owners handed over the money to the three officers and after realising that their scam was working, the officers then moved on to the Nkurenkuru Open Market, where they employed the same fraudulent method to obtain money and clothing from local business people.

The officers, Ricardo Dinaob (24), Bennet Blostain (27) and Kaveto Daniel Sitentu (22), are said to have  pocketed goods and money worth a combined N$6 520.

After they were informed of their right to engage legal representation of their own choice, Sitentu indicated that he would engage a private lawyer, while the other two accused opted to apply for legal aid. - Nampa