Africa-Press – Angola. The Ministry of the Interior (MININT) rejected, this Wednesday, in Luanda, information published on social networks about “an alleged” involvement of staff from the sector’s structures in drug trafficking.
According to the National Director of Public Security of the National Police, Commissioner Orlando Bernardo, there is no evidence that the information circulating on social networks and other channels is true.
The official commissioner was speaking to the press at the end of the parliamentary hearing requested by the deputies of the National Assembly to the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) to assess, among others, issues related to drug trafficking, fuel trafficking, human beings and currency counterfeiting.
The aforementioned parliamentary hearing was authorized by the President of the Republic, as holder of the Executive Power, João Lourenço.
According to the senior police officer, from what is known, so far, “there is no involvement of staff from the structures of the Ministry of the Interior in drug trafficking”.
Orlando Bernardo added that there is, in fact, a procedure that must be followed and some caution should be taken when such issues are raised, stressing that the deputies were informed about these facts.
Combating drug trafficking
Commissioner Orlando Bernardo explained that the bodies of the Ministry of the Interior are currently engaged in a major campaign to combat drug trafficking.
In 2022, he added, there was an exponential increase in the fight against drug trafficking, a factor that, he stressed, probably caused some antibodies that resulted in false accusations.
In turn, MP Pedro Neto, from the MPLA, assigned to the second commission of the National Assembly that deals with issues of Security, Defense, Internal Order, Former Combatants and Veterans of the Fatherland, noted that they had the opportunity to expose the concerns coming from society and which deserved adequate responses from the Ministry of the Interior.
Regarding the alleged involvement of MININT staff in drug trafficking, the deputy made it known that the parliamentary hearing served to clarify the facts.
The deputy explained that the clarifications made bring to the lesson that “not everything that is said on social networks is true enough (…)”.
However, he noted that the exercise serves for the Ministry of the Interior to develop a profound activity so that suitable solutions can be found for issues related to trafficking or smuggling.
On his turn, deputy Joaquim Nafoia, from UNITA, considered the hearing satisfactory. “We listened to the Minister of the Interior and his team and the questions we asked were answered without reservations and without filters”, he asserted.
For the parliamentarian, in this specific case, there was a lack of communication, advising the Ministry of the Interior to provide the clarifications that are necessary for public opinion.
In his view, if the Ministry of the Interior provided the public with a suitable clarification, there would not be this alarm. “A case like this cannot be summarized with a laconic statement”, he reinforced.
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