Two Malawi Police detectives have been arrested in Lilongwe for allegedly demanding K20 million from Burundian nationals who wanted to get back their containers seized by police.
The Malawi Police Service has identified the two female detectives as Molley Makomera and Elube Malombe who are based at the national police headquarters in Lilongwe.
National police spokesperson Peter Kalaya said the two and seven Burundians were arrested on Saturday May 20 as they exchanged money to have some of the containers confiscated during the ongoing relocation of refugees back to Dzaleka Camp.
Malawi Police arrested Burundian national and confiscated their containers as part of an exercise of taking all refugees from all the locations within Lilongwe back to Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa.
According to a police report, on Saturday, a Burundian national contacted Makomera asking to meet her.
The two met where they agreed to have their discussions at a bottle store in Area 49. At the bottle store, Makomera went together with the other detective Malombe.
The Burundian nationals asked for an assistance of securing their containers and the goods and offered K15 million to the officers.
In their response, the officers told the seven Burundians that they cannot manage to assist them but will connect them to the relevant authorities.
Malombe allegedly contacted a deputy director for criminal investigations at the National Police headquarters asking for assistance.
She then told the refugees to provide K20 million in order to be assisted.
“The Burundians decided to sit down and discuss in order to find means of sourcing the money. In the process of doing this Police Detectives arrived and arrested the two ranks and the claimants for the offence of official corruption. Meanwhile investigations are underway and the suspects will appear before court soon,” reads part of the police report.
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