Eastern Region police remember nine colleagues
Police in the Eastern Region on Tuesday celebrated this year’s Christmas with a difference by holding inter-denominational remembrance prayers for nine of their colleagues who died in a road accident at Chiendausiku in Balaka recently.
The nine Police Mobile Service (PMS) officers died after the vehicle they were travelling in veered off the road and overturned several times before hitting a tree. They were on a presidential convoy escorting President Peter Mutharika to the installation ceremony of Sub-Traditional Authority Kapoloma in Machinga.
The sombre service, attended by families and relatives of the bereaved, preceded the 2014 Christmas carols held at Police College officers’ mess in Zomba.
Speaking during the ceremony, the region’s police commissioner Starch Kazembe Maundala said they could not celebrate Christmas the usual way while the bereaved families were still mourning the nine departed souls.
He said: “It is about two weeks ago when we were here mourning the death of the nine PMS officers. Their death shocked us all in the Malawi Police Service and we thought it was only proper for us to celebrate Christmas with a memorial service in their honour.”
Maundala said the death of the police officers has affected the already deficient manpower in the service fighting crime in the country.
