Jimmy to face court for assault

Editorial, Main Stories

BY REBECCA KUKU
NATIONAL Capital District election manager Alwyn Jimmy was released on bail after he was arrested and charged with  assaulting a scrutineer on Monday night at the Rita Flynn sports complex.
Metropolitan Superintendent Benjamin Turi said that the incident happened on Monday night after a newspaper photographer tried to take pictures of a ballot box containing blank ballot papers.
“Jimmy told the photographer not to take shots of the ballot papers and was confronted by scrutineers and they had a heated argument.
“He was under a lot of pressure and was provoked by the
scrutineers into assaulting one of them.”
Turi said that the scrutineers laid a formal complaint at the Boroko police station and Jimmy was arrested and brought in on Monday.
“We had a lot of scrutineers coming in and writing witness statements so the matter will be settled in court.”
However, Turi said that police would be standing with the election manager during the court hearing.
“It was failure on the part of the police officers that were on the ground; they should have contained the situation and ensured that the election manager was not pressured or provoked by the scrutineers.”
He said that all the officers on the ground have been changed and replaced yesterday.
“The beat unit, mobile unit and Badili police officers will be providing security for the counting venue.
“The new teams will be under the command of director for CID, Moses Ipsagi,” Turi said.