Police clarify misleading article published in one of the two newspapers

The Royal Solomon Island Police Force (RSIPF) would like to clarify a misleading article with the title ‘local businessman accused of renting PRT’ that was published in the Solomon Star.

Assistant Commissioner (AC) National Operations Evelyn Thugea says, “First let me correct some of the factual errors in the article. There is no such thing like renting a Police Response Team (PRT) as claimed in the Solomon Star on 12 September 2021.

AC Thugea says, “RSIPF is an independent organization that will never take sides in any business. Police deal with issues independently and have no conflict of interest when it comes to crime.”

Secondly, “At no time PRT has been involved in such a raid as mentioned in the article. She explained it was the City Response Unit (CRU) based in Honiara City that was involved in this matter and subsequently made the arrest.”

She says, “Mr Eddie Koke mentioned that two land cruisers are fully armed with weapons, this is false. To make it clear CRU is not an armed team within the RSIPF organisation.”

Superintendent William Foufaka of Honiara City Police confirmed that during the incident, CRU only dressed up with their police black T-Shirt and no riot PPE used at the time of the incident as mentioned in the article.”

“Police officers approached Mr Koke professionally and diligently explained the process to him. There is no conduct of intimidation discharge at that time by CRU team members as stated in the article,” says Superintendent Foufaka.

AC Thugea further advised that if police actions are not acceptable during the raid, it is advisable that Mr Eddie Koke call in at Professional Standard Internal Investigation (PSII) and lodge his complaint.

PSII can be contacted on phone 24197 or call in at their office at Central Police Station.