Police seize P1m in stolen gov't office equipment

Pini Bothoko | Thursday November 2, 2017 11:30

Two Kenyans, Peter Kipngeno Cheruipot (56), Edwin Langat (34) and a Motswana man Kagiso Thage (44) are currently in police custody pending investigations.

In an interview with Mmegi, CID officer-in-charge, Madziba Duna said the two Kenyans are suspected to have connived with Thage, an employee of NACA, to steal a large quantity of office equipment.

Duna said they received a tip-off recently alerting them about a large quantity of office equipment that was found at the suspects’ office at White City location in Gaborone.

“Ever since we received the report, we have been investigating the matter and on Monday, we visited their office and found the said equipment. “When we interrogated the suspects, they failed to explain where they took or purchased the equipment, hence the suspicion that they might have stolen them. Upon further interrogation, the two Kenyans said they took the equipment from Thage,” said Duna.

He said the equipment includes three computers, two printers, chairs and large quantity of toners (boxes of toner cartridge, colour cartridge and print cartridge), which had filled their office to the rafters.

“The two Kenyans are into a supply company, hence we suspect that they might have made a deal with the NACA employee to steal so that they can tender and supply elsewhere.

“This concerns us because government spends a lot of money to buy equipment and if that gets stolen before it can even be used, government will be forced to purchase them again. We are worried because some employees are involved in these theft incidents,” Duna said.

Duna applauded members of the community for their support, stating that they are arresting more suspects from their tip-offs.

“Of late we have been making breakthroughs because of support from members of the public. This shows that Batswana are concerned with the rise in crime just like us and are devoted to helping the police curb the situation before it gets out of control,” Duna said.

Meanwhile, Gaborone West police are investigating a case in which P188,700 was stolen from a Standard Chartered Bank ATM in Gaborone.

In an interview with Mmegi, Gaborone West police station assistant station commander, assistant superintendent Irene Lepodise said they are holding four G4S employees in custody in relation to the matter.

“On Monday, we received a report from two G4S employees who were supposed to go and load the money alerting us that they found the ATM back door unlocked.

We rushed to the crime scene and indeed found the door unlocked and money amounting to P188,700 stolen. The door was not tampered with because it was not damaged,” Lepodise said.

She said it appeard someone opened it using the keys and stole the money and a digital video recording camera worth P52,000.

She said they have arrested four employees, who comprise three men and a woman. The employees were assigned to load the money over the weekend. “These are the same people who loaded the money and came the following day and claimed that they found the door unlocked,” Lepodise said.