TWO factions of the police force have clashed over the serving of contempt charges on senior officers, resulting in the assault of a policeman in front of his family in Port Moresby.
National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate director Chief Superintendent Matthew Damaru said fraud investigator Detective Sergeant Patric Primenga was assaulted on Sunday by a group of armed National Capital District officers in front of his wife and children. Damaru yesterday called on Police Commissioner Geoffrey Vaki to immediately take disciplinary action against the group who were interrupting their work. He said Primenga was assaulted after he was tasked to serve contempt charges on a group including senior officers following a Supreme Court ruling this month regarding the warrant of arrest against Prime Minister Peter O’Neill. Damaru said his office had started contempt proceeding last week against Vaki, acting deputy commissioner Jim Andrews, NCD-Central regional commander Jerry Frank and other officers. He alleged that they had “interfered” with the execution of the warrant of arrest on O’Neill. He said officers from the fraud unit had been facing resistance and aggression when trying to serve the contempt charges. He said 15 armed officers arrived in three police vehicles at Primenga’s home at the Games Village barracks and assaulted him. Damaru said one of officers pointed a pistol at Primenga and pulled the trigger but it failed to discharge. The group of officers then went to the Sabama police barracks and threatened the family of another fraud squad officer. “This is seriously an unprofessional and flagrant contemptuous behaviour. We are calling on the police commissioner to immediately take disciplinary action against those officers and have them charged for attempted murder,” he said. An official complaint was lodged at the Waigani police station. Meanwhile, a senior official at the Prime Minister’s Office has called on police officers to respect the recent Supreme Court ruling on the Police Commissioner’s authority. “The Supreme Court has reaffirmed the Police Commissioner’s powers vested in him by the Constitution,” he said. He said although the court ruled that Vaki did not have the power to direct or control his officers from executing the warrant of arrest against O’Neill, he (Vaki) had the standing to seek leave for a judicial review of the Chief Magistrate’s decision to issue the warrant of arrest. “The commissioner’s judicial review is still pending in the National Court before Justice Les Gavara-Nanu who had raised the questions for the Supreme Court’s interpretation.” He said in the meantime, the stay order on the O’Neill’s warrant of arrest remained in force. PNG Facts/The National
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