Namwala DC praises appointment of Libongani as she tours districts

Namwala District Commissioner, Gevar Nsanzya, says the appointment of Stella Libongani by President Michael Sata as Inspector general of Police has yielded a lot of results.

Mr Nsanzya says among the notable results are the reduction in Gender Based Violence cases, reduction in child abuse cases and general reduction in crime rate in the country.

He was speaking in Namwala when Inspector General of Police, Stella Libongani, paid a courtesy call on him during her tour of districts.

He said that messages of Gender Based Violence and child abuse have reached out to many communities because of police who are doing well in terms of publicising the messages.

Mr Nsanzya has since appealed to the Ministry of Home Affairs to consider building a police camp in Namwala as currently police officers live in civilian communities which is not right for them as security personnel.

The Namwala District Commissioner also raised concerns of the need for the construction of police posts in Mungaila and Muchila chiefdoms.

He observed that in Muchila there is a lot of crime because of its high numbers of people visiting the area for maize in the district while Mungaila has high numbers of cattle in the district which need to be protected from cattle rustlers.

Mr Nsanzya also disclosed to the Inspector General of Police that most of the police staff who live in Namwala do not get rural hardship allowance.

The Namwala District Commissioner has since appealed to the police commission to consider giving the deserving officers the rural hardship allowances.

Mr Nsanzya also disclosed that his office has received a lot of complaints from Namwala community who have applied for licence for fire arms, and that most applications take time before they are approved.

He said the delay in processing will make people resort to under hand methods because of wanting to secure their wealth.

The Namwala District Commissioner has commended police for rehabilitating the Namwala cells and painting the police station, but bemoaned the lack of space at the Namwala police station which requires expansion due to the ever-increasing population in the district.

Meanwhile Police Inspector General, Stella Libongani, has disclosed that government, through the Ministry of Home Affairs, will build 25,000 housing units for home affairs security wings where 10,000 will be for the police commission.

She said the coming of the Patriotic Front has brought hope to the police in that government has shown commitment to address issues of accommodation in the police service.

Ms Libongani disclosed that the police commission intends to review the current police establishment so that they increase it to 27,000 from the current 18,000.

The Inspector General noted that the police service respects human rights and rights of inmates, hence the program of rehabilitating cells so that they live in conducive places and have good health.

She pointed out that the issue of not rural hardship allowance will become a thing of the past with the review of the police establishment which will address most of the m problems.