Police officers, who arrest and detain anyone suspected of having sexual intercourse with a married person, will face disciplinary courts.
Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said it is not criminal to have sexual intercourse with married people and that the police officers should desist from misusing their authority to criminalise civil cases.
“Adultery is no longer a criminal offence in our country and therefore criminalising it is an act of unprofessionalism and abuse of authority which the force cannot tolerate,” Commissioner of Police Enanga said yesterday.
The police warning comes days after a Television presenter was arrested after he was allegedly found having sexual intercourse with a married woman. The presenter was also paraded before cameras and videos leaked to social media.
In 2007, the Constitutional Court scrapped Section 154 of the Penal Code Act that made adultery an offence, which attracted a year in jail for cheating married women.
The court ruled that the law was discriminatory against women.
Mr Enanga said they have arrested their police officer who led the operation of arresting the presenter.
He said the officer is going to be charged in their disciplinary court for behaving in a scandalous manner, an offence that attracts dismissal from the police on conviction.
However, Mr Enanga said the officers should only come in if they believe that the incident could lead in loss of life or property.
He said people who come out with married people for days and have sexual intercourse with them will be arrested for elopement.
“The other circumstances where victimised married persons can report their matter to police are in complaints of elopement where one elopes with a married person and stays with them including in a lodge for several days,” he said, adding that other instances are “trafficking in persons where a person uses their power or positions of superiority and take advantage of their vulnerability of a wife or husband to indulge in an affair with them; and under domestic violence if the victim is tortured physically or emotionally by the sexual behaviour of his wife or husband.”
Mr Enanga said they have been receiving reports from the public that their officers are used in civil cases to carry out arrests.
“Any police officer found using his or her authority handling civil matters will be dealt with,” he said.
*******************
Daily Monitor
