07 Apr 2022

Barely four months into 2022, Tonota police have already recorded the highest number of threat to kill cases reaching 13 in less than 3 months.
From January to December 2021 cases were nine.

Tonota station commander, Superintendent Oteng Ngada told BOPA on Tuesday that more victims were finally coming forward to report the cases.
He said victims were now treating the nature of the crime with the seriousness it deserved as a result of education police imparted on the community.
“We have been actively educating the public on crimes such as assault, public indecency, threat to kill and Gender Based Violence (GBV) which has opened a lot of eyes, hence the number of recorded cases,” he said.

He said in all the cases, victims were women while accused persons happened to be males who were lovers or former lovers of the victims.
As the country pushes to stop GBV, he said any threat to kill cases reported could never be withdrawn even when the victim had a change of heart.
For protection of the victims, Tonota police chief said the accused were immediately held in custody to allow for either more investigations or time to ensure that the accused did not fulfil their threats.
All the accused persons had appeared before court and some were awaiting bail application, said Supt Ngada.

 “Only the magistrate is responsible to release or drop the charges looking at the details and the seriousness of each case,” he added.
Supt Ngada urged Batswana to be cautious with the words they uttered out of anger as they could result in them serving a 10-year imprisonment for threat to kill.
The only cases that have been dropped, however, were those found by the magistrate as mendable, reconcilable and believed not to potentially lead to any horrific ending, he said.
In order for the community to come together and stop GBV, Supt Ngada advised victims to come forth as soon as they were threated or assaulted. As for victims who came back and requested for charges to be withdrawn for whatever reasons, he urged them to remember that no amount of money or love was worth losing their lives over.

“We also ask the public to work with the police to report cases of GBV, especially defilement as many cases go unreported due to hesitance of parents and accepting offers made by perpetrators in return to keeping the crime a secret,” he said.

This, he said, became noticeable by reported cases from clinics when it was time to register subsequent pregnancies.
Supt Ngada reminded those who concealed criminal acts that they could suffer the consequences, adding that such activity on its own was another form of crime. ENDS