Suspended Police Commissioner, Lilomaiava Fou Taioalo, yesterday downplayed his role in the perceived failure of the Police’s Professional Standards Unit (P.S.U) to address a number of complaints against Police officers.
The Commissioner was giving evidence before a special Commission of Inquiry ordered by Cabinet to investigate his performance.
The Commission is chaired by the Ombudsman, Maiava Iulai Toma. The other members of the Commission are Gatoloai Tili Afamasaga and Su’a Tanielu Su’a. They are being assisted by lawyers, Sine Lafaiali’i-Koria and Sefo Ainu’u from the Office of the Attorney General.
On the second day of his evidence, Lilomaiava was asked to address questions surrounding the poor management of the P.S.U, the Okoro case and strange promotions within the Force.
Lilomaiava told the Inquiry that the role of the P.S.U was to investigate complaints from members of the public against police officers.
“The problem was that not many officers could be called into the unit because of issues of conflicts of interest,” he said.
In 2012, Lilomaiava said the Police signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Office to the Ombudsman.
“They reviewed the unit and from the review, they identified that many cases were delayed. I didn’t comment on it. How could I when there is a huge problem there with police officers delaying cases?”
Lilomaiava cited one of the cases, which ended up in Court. It involved seven police officers being charged for actual bodily harm over the assault of a male from Tanugamanono.
At that point, Chairman Maiava intervened to explain the agreement between his Office and P.S.U. He said the Unit is new and from their review, they found that it was poorly run.
“As the (Police) Commissioner mentioned, the police culture is very hard to break down but it shouldn’t be tolerated and the Commissioner should give orders,” said Maiava.
“I want to say that from my observation, the P.S.U has improved from its original stage and the Commissioner did move to make the progress.”
Nnamdi Okoro’s case Okoro Williams Nnamdi, a Nigerian man sued the government in 2011 for over $12 million as compensation for an experience he described as “mentally distressing and frustrating”.
His passport was misplaced by the police and a sum of 26,000 Yuan.
During the Commission yesterday, the Commissioner was given the opportunity to explain his actions, if any, in handling this particular case.
Lilomaiava admitted that Okoro was awarded money because of negligence on the part of Police that handled the matter.
He reiterated that he was not the Commissioner. He was instead the Assistant Commissioner for Prisons and National Security.
“It was later when the case was dismissed that I was the Commissioner,” said Lilomaiava.
“It took a while before I was told about the matter that his passport was lost."
“That was when I asked for a report from the investigating officer who was Tise.”
At that time, the Commissioner said Tise had left for the Solomon Islands for a mission.
And there was another problem. Lilomaiava said he couldn’t refer the case to the P.S.U because Tise’s father was the head of the Unit at the time.
“I then decided to take the matter to C.I.D (Criminal and Investigation Division),” he recalled.
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“I also received a letter from the Attorney General that charges should be filed against Tise and others, considering the findings from the Commission.”
However, Lilomaiava said the order from A.G was not done as the Act clearly states that charges can’t be filed any later than 12months after the alleged incident.
“That was the reason why no further actions were taken.”
Lilomaiava reiterated that since the Okoro case, he initiated a policy about how the police handle properties and evidence.
But Maiava was not convinced.
He said it wasn’t until after the case was presented in Court when it was discovered that Okoro’s passport and belongings were missing.
“My point is it took a Commission of Inquiry to discover the problem,” he said. “It shouldn’t require a Commission to hold someone responsible."
“When things go wrong and people responsible are not held accountable, the public expects the Head of Police to be responsible…”
As for properties taken by police, Maiava referred to a similar case where a man had his vehicle held in custody and when he came to retrieve it, the stereo was removed. The stereo was later returned.
“When properties are taken by police, people would expect them to take care of it,” said the Ombudsman.
“The public should never have to question it (belongings) going missing – it’s in the middle of Police for God’s sake.”
The Commission also raised issues about human rights in the handling of the Okoro case.
The decision to ducktape his mouth before putting him on the plane was “atrocious.”
“These are terrible human rights issues.
There is so much in this case that is atrocious,” he pointed out.
“It was a very sad case for the Commission to assess where no one was held accountable but the country had paid an awful lot of money and yet the Police didn’t care.”
In response, Lilomaiava said police treated the Nigerian man as a prohibited immigrant.
He recalled that he was only aware of the missing passport when the Prime Minister “wrote to me saying, we are all Christians and he feels for the man”.
“When I received the letter, I was made aware of the situation so we moved to have his passport done.”
“I ordered the Finance Division to have Tise’s wage deducted to pay for the man’s passport. And when police came to take him (Okoro), he refused to put on clothes and that was why he was tied up and taken like that.”
Commission member, Gatoloai asked why the Police involved were not sacked.
False promotion and unusual recruits A female officer who gave evidence during the first Commission of Inquiry spoke about an “unusual promotion” where she came from being a Constable to a Senior Sergeant, without sitting the necessary exam.
The Officer told the Commission she had applied but was rejected and told she was too old.
Later, she was told she could still apply for a job at the Prison. She apparently worked at Tafa’igata for half a day where she trained some recruits and was later promoted.
Asked to explain, Lilomaiava said the woman had worked for the government for 14 years.
He said there is a practice that gives police officers the chance to be promoted based on merits.
But Maiava was not satisfied. He wanted to know how a woman was promoted from the rank of Constable to Senior Sergeant.
“What happened is that during the promotion time, none of the officers that sat the exam studied,” he said. “No one studied and that was reflected on the results where some got 5 out of 100 for the exam.”
“So that was why the opportunity was opened for those in uniform to be promoted.”
Lilomaiava added that “it is not a must to sit the exam.”
The Commission of Inquiry has been adjourned until next week.
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