Five Kishapu Council workers held as NIDA equipment go missing

Five workers of Kishapu District Council in Shinyanga Region are held by the police for allegations of stealing equipment belonging to the National Identification Agency (NIDA) used for verification of civil servants’ certificates.

Shinyanga Regional Police Commander (RPC) Muliro Jumanne confirmed the reports, mentioning the stolen equipment as two special cameras and their tripods.

He could not disclose more details or mention the names of the suspects but at least said that already, three staff and two security guards have been netted in connection with the incident and more investigations have been launched to obtain more facts on the matter.

“The equipment was kept in the office of Kishapu District Council, which is well secured but we wonder why the equipment went on missing despite the security. Therefore, we have arrested five suspects for more interrogations,’’ Mr Muliro told reporters.

The RPC said the theft of the equipment was discovered as the NIDA staff members were looking for them ready to start the exercise on Monday morning when they noticed they were nowhere to be seen.

The Kishapu District Commissioner (DC), Ms Nyabagamba Talaba, who is also the Chairman of the District Security and Defence Committee, also confirmed the report but left the whole matter to the police for action.

“It is true that on Monday morning, a NIDA official detected the loss of the equipment and immediately reported to the authorities who quickly communicated the same to security organs.

The police are still working on it and any development will be communicated accordingly,” said Ms Talaba.

Kishapu District Executive Director (DED), Mr Stephen Magoiga, said there was no blockage to the door of the room that kept the items, maintaining that no other equipment, apart from the cameras and the tripods, were stolen. Information had it that the devices, whose value is 6m/-, were fitted into Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) systems.