National ID Registration forms on sale, suspects arrested

Police in Mchinji have arrested two men for illegal photocopying and selling of registration forms to community members during the national registration exercise.

Mchinji Police Public Relations Officer Kaitano said one of the two, Armstrong Nyirenda aged 27 years, was arrested by police on June 13 following a tip-off that the suspect was reproducing NRB registration forms and selling at them at K300.00.

Kaitano said people who tipped Police alleged that foreigners were also able to access the photocopied forms for a higher price.

“Officers from Mchinji Police Station instituted intensive investigations into matter to trace the source and finally arrested Nyirenda who owns a shop at Mikundi Trading Centre,” He said.

Lubrino said it was later discovered that the suspect had already sold the forms to unsuspecting people that were registering at Kalombo Registration Centre.

Currently police have managed to recover some of the photocopied forms and will be used as evidence in court.

His accomplice, 36 year old Lukiyasi Masanjula who hails from Msampha village, Traditional Authority Mavwere in Mchinji was arrested at Namizana along the borders of Malawi and Mozambique where police confiscated some forged forms from him.

The two will appear before court to answer a case based on Section 43 (b) of the National Registration Act which prohibits any person from forging any document for the purposes of obtaining registration as s/he commits an offence and upon conviction shall be liable to a fine of one million kwacha or imprisonment for five years.Mana