Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana Police Service (BPS) has on Friday destroyed 263 confiscated firearms at the Police College near Otse.
According to BPS Officer Commanding Arms Registry, Senior Superintendent Gosekwang Sebitla, the destroyed firearms included 164 shotguns, 96 rifles, two pellet guns and a pistol. Senior Superintendent Sebitla said some of the firearms were voluntarily surrendered by the registered owners, which were regarded as redundant and posing danger in their usage. He said some were found abandoned and were mostly unregistered and were treated as lost and found property.
The firearms were seized by different police stations that embarked on investigations and handed them to Central Arms Registry office for destruction. He said the destruction was an annual initiative aligned with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocols on the control of small arms and light weapons necessitated by efforts to keep firearms away from unlawful owners. The exercise takes place annually across the SADC region.
Senior Superintendent Sebitla said SADC had chosen September as Africa Amnesty Month (AAM) and appealed to Batswana to use the period to surrender illegal arms.He said during this period, individuals possessing unlawful firearms were to surrender them to the police without fear of prosecution. The day was adopted from the Amnesty Protocol by SADC member states to collect all illegally-possessed weapons or arms from any ground or individual who had no authority to possess them.
The SADC Amnesty Protocol states that persons who voluntarily surrender illegal-owned weapons or arms during the month of September may not be subjected to disclosure humiliation, arrest or prosecution and those who shall be considered to be violating national law and the amnesty shall be prosecuted accordingly.
He highlighted that the offence of unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition was contrary to section 9 (4) of the Arms and Ammunition Act No. 19 of 2018, which provided that upon conviction, the accused person was liable to a fine not exceeding P5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to both.
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