By: Hellen Andreas and Kauluma Natangwe

The Namibian Police Inspector-General Sebastian Ndeitunga said his office is aware of the reports that some stations ran out of petrol for more than two days, and the situation has been handled.

Ndeitunga told The Villager on Wednesday that he received reports from various regions that some of the fuel storage tanks in the Oshana region have run out of petrol.

He also said some police stations in the region were going to fill up the vehicles at Oshikuku in the Omusati region, Omungwelume in the Ohangwena or inOshikoto region same applies to the Erongo region.

“I did not find out myself that we ran out of fuel at some stations, but senior officers heading the departments dealing with petrol in different regions, some stations were affected by the fuel shortage, and the fuel storage tanks ran dry”, Ndeitunga said.

It is reported that some police stations in the Erongo region went up to two weeks without fuel. Ndeitunga said that his office engaged the finance department in the line ministry to allocate them with money to pay the fuel service providers, and the police department can only pay back in the later stage. 

“The fuel issue has been rectified, and the operation is back to normality, and the police vehicles that could not operate due to the fuel shortage, were only parked for two days, not more than that,’’ Ndeitunga said.

He said every end of the financial year; the police department will have empty coffers due to the budget cut because of the economic downfall in the country and the COVID-19, which saw the government going beyond the limit to mitigate the spread of the virus.

“Every end of the financial year toward the new financial year could be that there is no money. On the other hand, it could be that the police operations were increased and the government priorities were changed in that financial year.’’

Ndeitunga also blamed some police officers who misuse the police vehicles, saying it contributes to the fuel shortage at some police stations and they should maintain the police properties.

Ndeitunga also confirmed to The Villager that some police officers volunteer to contribute to buying police car parts for the police operation to go smoothly.

“Yes, those officers have confirmed to me, and I was not who instructed them to do so. It was of their own will. We have challenges facing our department. Some of them we have police vehicles that need to be repaired for the police to render better services, but due to the budget cut, we have them parked.”