ROYAL PAPUA NEW GUINEA CONSTABULARY

Commissioner of Police

MEDIA RELEASE
Tuesday July 01, 2014

Acting Police Commissioner appeals for restraint and common
sense

Acting Police Commissioner Geoffrey Vaki today called upon everyone to exercise restraint,
apply common sense and allow police to do its job without any undue influence.

Mr Vaki made this comment following the National Court refusal to the stay application on
the warrant of arrest on the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter ONeill.

The Police under Section 197 the PNG Constitution is empowered to maintain and, as
necessary, enforce the law in an impartial and objective manner. And Insofar as it is a
function of the Police Force to lay, prosecute or withdraw charges in respect of offences, the
members of the Police Force are not subject to direction or control by any person outside
the Force.

I as the Acting Police Commissioner and empowered under Section 198 of the PNG
Constitution, am responsible for the superintendence, efficient organization and control of
the Force.

Justice Kariko in his ruling acknowledged this and further stated that the administrative
matters are for the Commissioner of Police to resolve and not the court.

So consistent with the Court decision and for the sake of accountability and transparency I
must independently assess and analyse the investigations that were carried out prior to my
appointment as Acting Commissioner of Police.

You must appreciate the fact that I have only come onto the scene and need to be fully
briefed on the case. In fact I must know if the case has been properly investigated and
whether there were any undue influence exerted on the investigation or the investigators. I
also need to be confident that the case is water-tight and can stand up in court.

So therefore to allow for accountability and transparency and to remove the suspicion of
the case being contaminated by politics and people with vested interests I have assembled a
team of experienced and dedicated officers within the Constabulary to take carriage of this
matter. In fact I issued instructions yesterday for the case to be referred to acting ACP
Crimes Chief Superintendent Donald Yomasombi to further assess and analyse.

I called the lead investigators in the case, Director Fraud & Anti Corruption Chief
Superintendent Matthew Damaru, Chief Inspector Timothy Gitua and Director Legal Chief
Superintendent Nicholas Miviri where I expressed my concerns. I thought we had a good
constructive meeting in which I informed the three officers that I do not intend to stop the
investigations but as the head of the Constabulary I needed to see the file to satisfy myself.

I am a career policeman. I have sworn to uphold the law and have lived by the rule of law
for over 44 years as a policeman. I call upon everyone to give me the benefit of doubt.

In conclusion I want to appeal to everyone to exercise restraint, apply common sense and
allow my policemen to do their job. Let us not be too emotional about this entire matter
and forget that we are talking about the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea and hence the
need for thorough and careful examination of the case at hand, Acting Commissioner Vaki
said.

(Ends.)