Papua New Guinea Police Minister Robert Atiyafa has defended the decision of the Police Commissioner Gari Baki to shut the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate. Responding to comments the Goroka MP Bire Kimisopa made in a recent televised interview, the minister said the police commissioner acted within his administrative powers and leaders should refrain from making unsubstantiated statements. “Since assuming office last year, the commissioner acted professionally and reasonably by giving ample time for the fraud investigators to appraise him as head of the organisation on all matters investigated by the NFACD including the PM’s case. But detectives assigned to these cases acted unethically and irrationally by withholding information from the commissioner of police. This has raised a certain level of suspicion of bias in these investigations and the organisation,” he said in a media release this afternoon. Mr Kimisopa, who was the internal security minister in the 2002-2007 Somare government, slammed Mr Baki’s decision to close the directorate and urged the police commissioner to cease the prosecution targeting his own officers. Despite Mr Atiyafa’s defense of Mr Baki, the National Court last week directed the police commissioner’s lawyer to revisit his client’s decision (to shut the NFACD) and advice the court whether his actions were contemptuous and sub judice. The matter returns to court tomorrow where lawyers representing the various parties will make submissions and hear from Mr Baki’s lawyer. Mr Kimisopa slammed the appointment of Mr Baki as police commissioner in an interview with EMTV’s Tok Piksa program last Sunday. Coincidentally the Bulolo MP and deputy opposition leader Sam Basil, in a posting on social media, said it was time for non-citizens to be considered for the position of police commissioner and chief justice.
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