News / National
Police never rested in searching for Dzamara
29 Mar 2018 at 03:21hrs | Views
THE Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) claims to have never rested in the search of pro-democracy activist, Itai Dzamara, who was allegedly abducted at a barbershop in Harare three years ago.
This week, police issued a statement asking the public to assist with information that may lead to them finding Dzamara, inviting attacks from human rights activists, who described the move by the ZRP as hypocrisy.
Responding to questions during an election reporting workshop held in Harare yesterday, police spokesperson, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said law enforcers never stopped investigations since the disappearance of Dzamara, and was hopeful that the matter will be concluded.
"Police officers have never rested in conducting investigations. They followed so many leads, informers have given information. Police have followed different leads to ensure that they come to the conclusion on what actually transpired. But, as they do that, as police, we do not have access to the media all the time. Each time we are conducting investigations, we do not have an obligation, most of the time to go out to the media and say this is what we are doing.
"Some of them are even undercover investigations and police have been doing that. There was an order sometime that, as police, we should also highlight in the media that this is what we are doing. So far, we have not concluded to establish what happened," she said.
Charamba dismissed claims that the intensification of investigations into Dzamara's whereabouts is a political gimmick.
"Some people are taking it as a political gimmick; police officers are not into politics. We simply inform the nation what we are doing. Undercover police officers have been investigating and we are surely seized with this matter," she said.
"It is not Charamba who investigates. We have the CIDs, each time they get a lead they get into detail. It is unfortunate that so far we have not been conclusive in our investigations. We are still hopeful, that is why we reached out to people to ensure that maybe there is somebody there who has information, but who has not given us. So we are doing our best, it is not that we are simply covering up for something."
This week, police issued a statement asking the public to assist with information that may lead to them finding Dzamara, inviting attacks from human rights activists, who described the move by the ZRP as hypocrisy.
Responding to questions during an election reporting workshop held in Harare yesterday, police spokesperson, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said law enforcers never stopped investigations since the disappearance of Dzamara, and was hopeful that the matter will be concluded.
"Police officers have never rested in conducting investigations. They followed so many leads, informers have given information. Police have followed different leads to ensure that they come to the conclusion on what actually transpired. But, as they do that, as police, we do not have access to the media all the time. Each time we are conducting investigations, we do not have an obligation, most of the time to go out to the media and say this is what we are doing.
"Some of them are even undercover investigations and police have been doing that. There was an order sometime that, as police, we should also highlight in the media that this is what we are doing. So far, we have not concluded to establish what happened," she said.
Charamba dismissed claims that the intensification of investigations into Dzamara's whereabouts is a political gimmick.
"Some people are taking it as a political gimmick; police officers are not into politics. We simply inform the nation what we are doing. Undercover police officers have been investigating and we are surely seized with this matter," she said.
"It is not Charamba who investigates. We have the CIDs, each time they get a lead they get into detail. It is unfortunate that so far we have not been conclusive in our investigations. We are still hopeful, that is why we reached out to people to ensure that maybe there is somebody there who has information, but who has not given us. So we are doing our best, it is not that we are simply covering up for something."
Source - newsday
