'ZBC lied on Boko Haram'

THE Inspector-General of Namibian Police Sebastian Ndeitunga has dismissed a ZBC report which said two members of the Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram were arrested recently in Namibia, the Namibian Sun has reported.

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation alleged last week that four Boko Haram representatives were arrested in Namibia and Somalia, spurring the African Union to increase the surveillance of terrorism on the continent.

But Ndeitunga dismissed the claim, saying that the Namibian police are not aware of any information about the arrest of Boko Haram fighters in the country.

"There was most probably just a mess-up with the country's names, but they were not arrested by the Namibian police," he said.

The AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Ambassador Smail Chergui was quoted as saying during a presentation at the National Defence College in Harare that four Boko Haram militants had been arrested weeks ago in Namibia and Somalia.

Ndeitunga stressed that the power to make arrests in Namibia is vested in the Namibian police and any person arrested should be reported to him.

"I have no knowledge of this. It really must be just a mistake."