Tension in Zomba as cop shoots soldier
There was tension in Zomba City yesterday following the shooting of a Malawi Defence Force (MDF) soldier by a patrol police officer at around 11pm on Saturday.
Yesterday morning, MDF soldiers dispersed a crowd that gathered at Zomba Police Station to get more information on the incident.
MDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Francis Kakhuta-Banda said in an interview yesterday an MDF soldier, identified as Lance corporal Prince Lameck from Phwandaphwanda Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Nkalo in Chiradzulu, was indeed shot dead by a police officer.
He said he could not give more details as investigations on the incident were ongoing.
He said: “Currently, details of the deceased are not ready as his next of kin have not been located and communicated to.
“Investigations as to what led to the shooting are being taken to come up with a comprehensive report.”
However, unverified information indicate that Lameck allegedly got into a fight with police officers on his way from a social joint when he tried to take away a gun from one patrol police officer who was quizzing him on what he was doing in the streets at a late hour.
Eastern Region Police spokesperson Thomeck Nyaude could neither confirm nor deny that the soldier was killed by a police officer, but said the registry has just recorded a shooting incident, which has no details as to who was shot and who did the shooting.
This is not the first time for police officers to shoot dead an MDF staff. In 1998, Army pilot Lieutenant Colonel Francis Gordons Dzineso was shot by patrol police as he drove on the M5 road connecting the Army Air Base and Zomba Town.
This is exactly what happens when a clueless commander in chief of our armed forces in the country that also happens to be the head of state, gives a direct order to the police to use any force against the very same people they are supposed to protect. You can not give such an open ended directive to a poorly trained trigger happy Malawi police force that leaves a lot to be desired.
In the UK not every police officer is allowed to carry a fire arm, and those who do have to pass a rigorous test first and it does not end there, every year they have to pass an amplitude test to make sure they can still be trusted to carry a fire arm without endangering the general public.
How on earth can well trained three, not just one but three police officers fail to contain a single drunk unarmed person to the extent that they resorted to murdering him in cold blood.
I am just hoping that our army will handle this case with the sensitiveness and maturity it deserves; we do not want to see another operation Bwenzani.