The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) calls on members of the public to respect all police vehicles and other property as investigations continue into an incident in the Kakabona area, West of Honiara during which some youth stoned a police vehicle at midnight on 30 July 2018.
Provincial Police Commander (PPC) Guadalcanal Province, Nixson Manetoga says, “The police vehicle from Henderson Police Station was on a normal high visibility patrol to the west side of Guadalcanal and as they approached Kolotoha Village at Kakabona they saw some boys drinking and causing disturbances on the side of the road.”
“The police patrol then stopped and approached the boys to move out from the main road and not to cause disturbances. My officers removed some of the kwaso (homebrew) from the youth and poured them out. The officers also warned them to move out from the road side to avoid any further incidents,” PPC Manetoga explains.
Superintendent Manetoga says, “As the officers’ returned East the police vehicle was stoned as they approached the same area at Kolotoha. The rocks hit the vehicle causing damage to the body of the vehicle. Luckily no officer was injured and the glass of the vehicle was not damaged as it was protected by netting.”
He adds: “The police vehicle stopped further up the road after the stoning incident before the officers walked back to place of the incident but the suspects had already escaped from the spot.”
“My officers made enquiries with people living around the area but members of the community did not want to cooperate despite the fact that the youth were from the same area,” says PPC Manetoga.
“The stoning of the police vehicle must be condemned in the strongest term. There is no reason for such unruly behaviour especially when the police were out on patrol to ensure the community was safe especially our women and children from criminal elements within our society. Furthermore the lack of cooperation by members of the community when the police went to investigate the incident is very sad,” says PPC Manetoga.
He says, “I appeal to all leaders in the Kolotoha community to work closely with the police to address such unruly behaviour by our youth making our communities unsafe for our own people.”