Koloma clarifies NSO situation

By LEMACH LAVARI
NATIONAL Statistician Roko Koloma says he had obtained two court orders last month to stay a warrant of arrest issued earlier against him.
He said he obtained the orders on April 24 and 30 to stay the arrest warrant issued by the court on April 13.
Koloma also said his recent absence was because he had been sick for two weeks and spent another two weeks organising his legal response to his arrest warrant.
Koloma said the warrant for his arrest was in regards to the restructure of the NSO and the appointment of the deputy national statistician.
He refuted claims that Bernard Kiele was the deputy national statistician. He said Dennis Gonnisso was the deputy.
Meanwhile, Boroko police station commander Senior Inspector Michael Tilae said he had not given the warrant of arrest for Koloma nor the stay order he said he had obtained.
He clarified this yesterday after it was reported that police officers from Boroko, acting on an arrest warrant, were waiting to arrest Koloma last Friday as he had turned up at the National Statistical Office.
Tilae said Koloma’s case was being investigated by the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption directorate.
Police had been looking for him to question him on the findings of a Finance Minister audit investigation report which stated that the National Statistical Office had overspent K24 million in its 2016 and 2017 accounts.
Director of the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate Chief Superintendent Matthew Damaru confirmed that they were investigating the allegations but were not ready to bring Koloma in for questioning.
Damaru said the attempted arrest of Koloma by some police officers last Friday was unrelated to the directorate’s investigation.