{"id":66057,"date":"2026-01-06T18:27:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T18:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms"},"modified":"2026-01-06T19:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:00:17","slug":"police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms","title":{"rendered":"POLICE URGE NATION TO RETURN UNLICENSED FIREARMS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong> <\/span>The Lesotho Mounted Police Service has urged members of the public to voluntarily surrender unlicensed firearms and ammunition, assuring them that those who do so will not face prosecution, as part of efforts to curb crime and enhance public safety.<\/p>\n<p>This call follows a ruling by the Thaba-Tseka Magistrate\u2019s Court in which Nare Sekonyela aged 44 of Ha-Khaulisa, Likomeng in Thaba-Tseka was convicted of unlawful possession of ammunition.<\/p>\n<p>Sekonyela was sentenced to seven years\u2019 imprisonment or a fine of M8,000.00, which he failed to pay.<\/p>\n<p>According to Detective Police Constable (D\/P\/C) Itumeleng Molelle from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Thaba-Tseka, police received a tip-off on December,28 that Sekonyela was in possession of a firearm. Acting on the information the following day, December,29 police conducted follow-up operations and found the accused in possession of two (2) rounds of ammunition without a valid permit.<\/p>\n<p>D\/P\/C Molelle said Sekonyela explained that he had returned the firearm to the person from whom he had bought it, claiming it was incompatible with the ammunition found in his possession.<\/p>\n<p>Sekonyela was arrested on December 29th and appeared before court the following day.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Detective Sub-Inspector Sechaba Letima reiterated the police\u2019s appeal to the public to cooperate by voluntarily surrendering illegal firearms.<\/p>\n<p>He emphasized that those who hand in such weapons will not be charged and encouraged citizens to follow proper legal procedures to acquire licensed firearms in accordance with the law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Lesotho<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. The Lesotho Mounted Police Service has urged members of the public to voluntarily surrender unlicensed firearms and ammunition, assuring them that those who do so will not face prosecution, as part of efforts to curb crime and enhance public safety. This call follows a ruling by the Thaba-Tseka Magistrate\u2019s Court in which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":66056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-66057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>POLICE URGE NATION TO RETURN UNLICENSED FIREARMS - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Lesotho. The Lesotho Mounted Police Serv ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"POLICE URGE NATION TO RETURN UNLICENSED FIREARMS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Lesotho. The Lesotho Mounted Police Serv ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-06T18:27:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-06T19:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767725905.539576.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"412\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"POLICE URGE NATION TO RETURN UNLICENSED FIREARMS\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-06T18:27:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-06T19:00:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms\"},\"wordCount\":262,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767725905.539576.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms\",\"name\":\"POLICE URGE NATION TO RETURN UNLICENSED FIREARMS - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767725905.539576.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-06T18:27:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-06T19:00:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"-article-header-tag\\\"> Africa-Press - Lesotho. The Lesotho Mounted Police Serv ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767725905.539576.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767725905.539576.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":412,\"caption\":\"POLICE URGE NATION TO RETURN UNLICENSED FIREARMS\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"POLICE URGE NATION TO RETURN UNLICENSED FIREARMS\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"POLICE URGE NATION TO RETURN UNLICENSED FIREARMS - Lesotho","description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Lesotho. The Lesotho Mounted Police Serv ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"POLICE URGE NATION TO RETURN UNLICENSED FIREARMS","og_description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Lesotho. The Lesotho Mounted Police Serv ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2026-01-06T18:27:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-01-06T19:00:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":412,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767725905.539576.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"POLICE URGE NATION TO RETURN UNLICENSED FIREARMS","datePublished":"2026-01-06T18:27:05+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-06T19:00:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms"},"wordCount":262,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767725905.539576.jpg","keywords":["Lesotho"],"articleSection":["all news","community"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms","name":"POLICE URGE NATION TO RETURN UNLICENSED FIREARMS - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767725905.539576.jpg","datePublished":"2026-01-06T18:27:05+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-06T19:00:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Lesotho. The Lesotho Mounted Police Serv ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767725905.539576.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767725905.539576.jpg","width":720,"height":412,"caption":"POLICE URGE NATION TO RETURN UNLICENSED FIREARMS"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/police-urge-nation-to-return-unlicensed-firearms#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"POLICE URGE NATION TO RETURN UNLICENSED FIREARMS"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}