Ntcheu Police has expressed concern with the alarming rate of rape and defilement cases in the district, despite their effort to fight the vice.

Community Policing Coordinator, Inspector James Bunya expressed the concern during the awareness campaign meeting on Monday with members of Community Policing Forum (CPF) in the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Ganya and Sub Traditional Authority (STA) Mtukumula in the district.

He said that in the past 10 months, the district registered over 56 cases, comparing with 15 cases which were registered in 2019 within the same period.

“A week cannot pass without recording a defilement case at our office which is a very worrisome situation, but as police we will continue to apprehend and bring to book these perpetrators of defilement,” he added.

Group Village Headman (GVH) Mtukumula said that they are doing everything possible within their power to deal with the problem.

He said that they were conducting sensitization meetings in his community on defilement and other related issues and a lot of people are now reporting such cases to Police unlike in the past when people in the area where hiding such cases.

The GVH pleaded with the law enforcement authorities to give stiff punishment to the perpetrators or else efforts to curb cases of rape and defilement will be in vain.

Credit: Mana