“We want answers”

North Coast residents were up in arms last week after two Nigerian men were released from police custody just a day after their arrest. According to IPSS’ managing director Frank Labidi the men were arrested on February 18, one of whom had no identification papers.

He explained that the Salt Rock neighbourhood watch and IPSS security had been tracking the men for over four months prior to their arrests.

Labidi, along with Kevin Murphy and Umhlali SAPS arrested the men and took them to Umhlali police station.

“We arrested them on the Monday night, and by the morning I had linked them to three more cases. I took the information to Umhlali SAPS the next day but they had been released by then,” said Labidi.

IPSS had also recovered items that were stolen and after posting them on Facebook, Labidi found the owners and linked the stolen items to cases that were opened at Umhlali SAPS.

The Courier contacted Umhlali SAPS’ station commander, Colonel Bheki Zondi, last week who confirmed that the men were released.

He was unable to give an official comment as the cases were being investigated by the KwaDukuza cluster office. “There has been no proper explanation, it seems everyone is passing the buck on this one,” said Labidi.

The KwaDukuza cluster task team investigates house break-ins and related crimes and according to Labidi, an officer from KwaDukuza SAPS released the men. Colonel Zondi directed all queries onto the KwaDukuza cluster.

At the time of going to print, there had been no official response from them. “This is not going away, we want answers, the community wants answers,” said Labidi.