Ntsoaki Motaung
An undisclosed number of members of Lesotho Mounted Police Services (LMPS) stationed at Mafeteng have been called for questioning in regard to 75 stolen firearms.
Reports indicate that the 75 pistols which were preserved for exhibitions were pilfered by unknown criminals on Saturday in an armory of the Mafeteng Police Station.
The Minister of Police Lepota Sekola said the weapons were stolen without breaking in as the door was left open. Promptly after he received a report, Sekola said he tasked his trusted investigation team to probe the matter.
“Immediately after this was reported, the Ministry sent a group of investigators to probe the matter. From the reports it is said that the firearms were stolen and the armory door was left open†Sekola said.
“We are talking of the same door that no one unless the person who has the key to the door cannot open. It does not matter how powerful you are or what objects you use to try to open but if it is not the key to the door you cannot succeed to open the door,†he said.
Lepota revealed that only one person at the police station has access to the key of the armory room and the person is normally called the armorer.
“It is obvious that there are suspects, but I do not want to get in details of who are the suspects but they are suspects under investigation by the enquiry group that was formed soon after we received the report of missing guns,†he said.
Meanwhile, the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Police indicated that no arrests have been made so far as per an explanation from the Public Relations Officer.
“There is no much information for now because we want to give investigations time to be undertaken without interruptions. Investigations are ongoing and once they are done, all the information will be communicated to the public,†he said adding that there is a team formed to investigate the matter. “There were also attempts to break into the armory at Leribe Police Station Hlotse but the attempt was not successful. The armory that was attempted to be broken into is the old one and no firearms are kept in there. We have also seen some news making rounds on social media that firearms are stolen from the Police headquarters and from police working at the parliament that is totally not true,†he said.