CONTROVERSIAL Dodoma regional police commander, SACP Theopista Mallya has been recalled to police headquarters, hours after a social media storm erupted over denigrating comments suggesting a link between a gang-rape victim and sex work.

 DCP David Misime, the spokesman for police headquarters, said in a statement yesterday that Inspector General Camillus Wambura had issued an order to transfer SACP Mallya and designating SACP George Katabazi, serving as Manyara RPC, to take over police command in the capital.

 In a statement which went viral on social media yesterday quoted the erstwhile RPC Mallya asserting that the perpetrators who recently raped a young woman in Dodoma might have been intoxicated with alcohol or marijuana.

 Police headquarters distanced itself from the remarks and shared a public apology to those who were pained by the report circulating on the internet, saying that the police inspectorate was “investigating the conversation between the officer and the journalist to determine the authenticity of the social media reports.”

 “The police force would like to apologise to everyone who was touched and offended by the statement circulating in the media while monitoring is being done to find its accuracy,” the spokesman affirmed.

 He said that the officer was requested by reporters from a local media outlet to comment on the whereabouts of investigations into the matter, as reports claimed it involves people in the police force and elsewhere.

 The police spokesman suggested that remarks by the reporter in the video alleging that the victim in question is claimed to be a prostitute, hinting that the sources were wrongly interpreted, “and the media report further created havoc in the social media.”

 He made an effort to explain that RPC Mallya told the reporters that even if the young woman was a prostitute “she didn’t deserve what was done to her,” in which case an investigation is being conducted to determine the veracity of the officer’s remarks.

 The statement indicated that the suspects involved in the case would be hauled to court later yesterday, as on Sunday, the director of public prosecutions (DPP) Sylvester Mwakitalu had indicated that the case file was yet to be reviewed as investigations were being pursued.

 Investigation is still ongoing, he said, affirming that once the file reaches his desk it will be a matter of finalising the procedural requirements.

 A video of the assault, which went viral on social media on Sunday August 4, shows five men sexually assaulting a young woman, while another video shows the suspects interrogating the victim and forcing her to apologise to someone referred to as a ‘commander’.

 Earlier the same week, police headquarters had clarified that the incident occurred back in May in the Swaswa area within the capital, with the men involved identified as Clinton Damas, Praygod Mushi, Amini Lema and Nixon Jackson.

 They were later apprehended in Dodoma and Coast regions with a search still on-going for two additional suspects, in the wake of their self-made video going viral.