By A Correspondent- Police are still to arrest scores of convicts who are freely walking the streets of Harare while on warrants of arrest, a development that has been widely condemned as lack of seriousness on the part of the law enforcement agents.
About 26 people were convicted of various offence, but lost their appeals at the High Court yet the police are struggling to apprehend them for committal to prison.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi had a tough time explaining to journalists the position of the police on the 26 convicts.
He kept on promising to get updates from police’s crime section, but to no avail.
Investigations at the Harare Magistrates’ Court revealed that none of the 26 suspects had been brought to court on a warrant of arrest. A number of people have expressed concern over the delay in locking up the convicts.
“It really boggles the mind, how a whole police force can fail to apprehend people whose names and addresses are available.
“Those who are supposed to be in jail must be arrested and locked up in the interests of justice,” said a source.
Another interested party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the police officers involved lacked seriousness.
“The police officers are not even serious. If they are finding it difficult to arrest the convicts, they should simply cause the gazetting of the particular names so that the nation can assist in apprehending them.
“Why are they not gazetting the names of the suspects? They also need to publish the names on their official website to show their seriousness,” said a source.
A legal expert who preferred anonymity said:
“When the police are looking for a criminal, it is standard practice and procedure that upon failure to locate and identify the suspect, there comes a time when the names are gazetted or published in the Press.
“Wanted persons believed to be out of the country must have their names published on the Interpol red notice to ensure they are apprehended wherever they are,” he said.-StateMedia