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POLICE Commissioner Gari Baki has issued an order to police officers
nationwide to stay away from election-related issues involving former
Southern Highlands Governor Hami Yawari and incumbent Anderson Agiru.
Mr Baki warned that police officers who failed to obey would be
“severely dealt with”.
“Police had been unnecessarily dragged into many of these issues which
should be handled by lawyers, thus creating a lot of suspicions and
allegations of abuse and impartiality on our part,” he said.
“It appears to be the norm for aggrieved parties to pick up any
policemen off the streets to satisfy their own personal agenda
regardless of the legal or ethical or police command and control
considerations.
“I am sad to admit that in many of these cases, police personnel
involved were ‘paid’ for their services by the engaging party.
“We have systems and processes in place to ensure that there was no
miscarriage of justice and that parties were not unnecessarily
intimidated or harassed.”
In the case of Mr Yawari and Mr Agiru, Mr Baki said Mr Yawari should
have contacted his office or that of the commander NCD/Central so that
the appropriate level of police involvement could have been ascertained.
“Mr Agiru had every reason to believe police were taking sides in this
issue,” he said.
“Not only was police involvement intimidating, it was also embarrassing
for a national leader as the serving of the notice took place at an
international hotel,” Mr Baki said.
He said procedures for police involvement would be tightened up so that
it was not open for abuse.
 
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