Angola’s Interior minister said on Monday in Luanda that the policeman who shot and killed a street vendor on Friday is under arrest, and refuted excessive police actions.
Eugénio Laborinho reacted to the death of a “zungueira” on Friday in the urban district of Maianga, Luanda province, when enforcement officers tried to order the sale at that location.
The Angolan minister considered that there are no police excesses, but the disrespect of the population for the police.
“There is no police excess; it is our society that has to respect a police organ, a policeman in full exercise of his functions, because he is a police agent that is there to maintain public order and safety, and any of these citizens knows that the police are there to fulfill their role,” said Eugénio Laborinho.
The holder of the Interior portfolio defended the need for the rescue of values in a joint effort between the authorities and the citizens.
“The rescue of values is what has to be respected and brought back, because it is a joint work, because a policeman is a citizen; the policeman comes from the people; he is the son of a normal citizen; he comes from the peasant, worker, intellectual, etc. level,” he said.
According to the minister, the Angolan national police is modern, emphasizing that every year a work is done from the civic and patriotic point of view of the policemen.
“We have opened an inquiry to be able to determine the responsibility for what occurred, we only appeal to our population to be a little calmer and to respect the police authorities, to respect order,” he added.
For the Angolan Interior Minister, “it is not acceptable that a street vendor sells on the sidewalk, sells in the pedestrian areas, or on the overhead bridges.”
Eugénio Laborinho confirmed the death of one person in the incident, denying reports that more people had died.