COMMISSIONER GARI BAKI’S DIRECTIVE TO MONITOR ALL WARRANT OF ARRESTS
In a Minute dated 30/07/2015, controversial Police Commissioner Gari Baki wrote to his controversial Acting Deputy Commissioner Raphael Huafolo with the following contents:
“This is to reiterate my previous instruction to the National Fraud Squad Anti-Corruption Directorate.
No more Warrants of Arrests are to be obtained direct from the Courts.
All requests for Warrants of Arrest by Police are to be referred to you for vetting and approval prior to referral to the Courts.
Bring this to the notice of NFACD. Breaches will result in departmental action taken against officer concerned.”
This minute is believed to have been circulated to all the Police throughout the country as there are fraud and corruption divisions and officers in all the provinces.
PNG Blogs approached a prominent lawyer who has been practising law since the early 1990s and the lawyer bluntly said “unconstitutional and corruption at the highest level.”The lawyer said “apart from the current role the Commissioner is playing to protect the Prime Minister and other senior people from imminent arrest, he has clearly stepped out of line. Section 197 of the Constitution gives powers to each police officer to arrest and charge anybody suspected of committing a crime. The Arrest Act supplements the Constitution by providing conditions upon which a person can be arrested and they are when the police officer reasonably believes that a person (1)has committed an offence; (2) is committing an offence and (3) is about to commit an offence. Some crimes under the Criminal Code such as Official Corruption require warrant before an arrest.
There is no provision for the police officer to consult the Commissioner or his deputy before the arrest. How can a police officer in Samarai, sees someone committing an offence but cannot do anything about it because he has to seek approval from the Commissioner or his deputy? So does that mean that the Commissioner and his deputy will now spend their time to vet all requests from all the 4000-5000 police officers’ requests instead of running the Police Department?
Legally and Practically Absurdity!!!!!”
Another senior citizen former bureaucrat commented “Unheard of! The Commissioner of Police has converted the Constitutional independent anti-corruption fighting corruption into an institution supporting corruption. He has to Go!”
The minute is attached.