NRB official fined

The magistrate court in Nkhatabay has fined a 34-year-old National Registration Bureau (NRB) official who got drunk and wreaked havoc at a registration centre.

The registration worker, Pamana Manda, has been ordered to a pay fine of K30,000 or in default to serve a jail term of six months for damaging a classroom door and NRB forms.

Nkhatabay Police Public Relations Officer Ignatius Esau confirmed to Malawi24 saying the convict on 23 September, while drunk, went to Lisale Primary School in Nkhatabay where there was a registration centre.

At the school he started causing havoc by tearing apart registration forms of people who came to register.

A police officer at the centre arrested Manda and locked him inside a classroom but the registration worker damaged the door of the room.

Manda was later taken to Nkhatabay police where two counts of malicious damage and being found in possession of military uniform were pressed upon him.

On October 3, he appeared before Nkhatabay first grade magistrate court and he pleaded guilty to both counts.

During mitigation, he told the court that at the time he committed the two offences he was under the influence of alcohol.

Passing sentence, First Grade Magistrate Antony Banda said the conduct displayed by the convict has breached the trust that government through NRB had in him.

Basing on the fact that the convict is a first offender and that he pleaded guilty to the charges, the magistrate ordered Manda to pay a fine of K30,000 or in default six months in prison for the first count.

For the second count, Manda was sentenced to four months in prison suspended to 12 months.

Pamana Manda hails from Chifila Chigowo village, Traditional Authority Malengamzoma in Nkhatabay.