Police Warn Public Against Police Imposters
Pini Bothoko | Monday May 29, 2017 16:18
The release reads, “Following a recent message circulating in social media purporting to be a Botswana Police alert dated 24/05/17 in which it is claimed that four gun men are on a spree to commit a series of offences including killing, raping and robbery, the Botswana Police Service (BPS) would like to distance itself and to clearly state that they have never issued such an alert or anything related with such insinuations”.
It further states that the police would like to strongly warn social media users against casual circulation of messages claiming to originate from BPS without verification.
Members of the public are advised to ignore such messages. “We would however like to reassure the public we are working around the clock to bring creators of such messages to book. Members of the public are further advised not to let anyone claiming to be police officer(s) or any security agent into their homes or offices and to immediately call the police,” reads the media release further.
Molepolole Police station commander, Superintendent Charles Mbengwa told The Monitor, they have received multiple reports of suspicious messages on WhatsApp and Facebook from people claiming to be the police officers.
“We do not know anything about the circulating messages nor to have released any statement. People have been phoning us to confirm such messages but we have told them that we do not know anything about those messages,” Mbengwa said. He said they are aware of the messages and have urged all police officers to be vigilant at all times to respond to any alert if such people could strike.
The message reads, “There has recently been an ongoing attack of four gunmen who rob, rape, orchestrate sex trafficking and kill. These men have an enormous amount of skills, they have attacked the black spider security headquarters in Montshiwa village, killed a man and woman 2nd degree murder. Note!! These men are highly trained, armed and dangerous”.
The message further reads, ‘Please lock your doors starting tonight until these men are arrested. Identities anonymous, investigations ongoing, carried out by all police institutions. These men are believed to be running a terrorism arms deal.
They have been traced and believed to be taking refuge in Molepolole, patrols will be ongoing door-to-door, and in-house searches will be carried starting today.
Do not be troublesome to the policemen searching your apartments day-to-day, any fuss with the policemen will be considered obstruction of justice. National search warrants will be handed to you by every search group.
Send this to your loved ones”.Mbengwa said these people might be imposters who want to gain access into people’s homes. “We do not announce anything to the public through WhatsApp or Facebook as they claim. We usually inform the public through press release with Botswana Police Service (BPS) logo or announcing the message on radio or television.
We suspect these might be thieves with tactics to gain access into people’s homes and steal their properties, ” Mbengwa said. Mbengwa said in their message they talked about using national search warrants something that they do not use.
“We do not use ‘national search warrants’ in Botswana, we only use search warrants. Even the language they have used in that message we are not familiar with like saying ‘any fuss with the policemen will be considered obstruction of justice’.
There is no one who have found refuge in Molepolole as the message claims,” Mbengwa said. Mbengwa warned members of the public not to open their houses to strangers and if anyone can visit them claiming to be police officers they should alert the police for confirmation before opening their gates to strangers.