Manning says sorry to Pagen

AN “administrative oversight” in the handling of a District Court warrant on an ongoing high-level case currently subjected to the constitutional process of investigation has seen Police Commissioner David Manning issuing a public apology to Chief Ombudsman Richard Pagen over what he terms as “an unfortunate incident”.
On Friday, several NCD Metro fraud officers and members of a Fox unit went to the Ombudsman Commission’s office to serve a search warrant to “retrieve, seize and confiscate” all documents pertaining to the Manumanu Land deal.
In the process of serving the search warrant, The National understands the police officers were taken to another room within the OC office.
Several members of the OC went into the room and started taking pictures of those who had presented the warrant.
An argument ensued and the police took Pagen and four other OC officers to the Boroko police station where they were to be charged with “hindering and contempt” of the execution of the search warrant.
However, Pagen and his four officers were later released with no charges.
Manning regretted the unfortunate incident, saying: “The police force and the Ombudsman had always had a very good, cordial working relationship.”
He said the police force has an operational duty, including execution of search and arrest warrants and their legal obligation to arrest in the event of police obstruction.
“We have established processes and guidelines with regards to police investigations,” he said.
“These processes and guidelines ensure that our conduct cannot be questioned.
“In this instance, there were fundamental flaws in the manner in which the search warrant was obtained, including jurisdiction of the courts in the issuance of the search warrant, as well as in the service of the search warrant itself.
“Policemen and women are not constitutional lawyers, hence, are not subjected to full and self-interpreting of court documents to identify flaws.
“What transpired is rather unfortunate and was done so without the knowledge of either myself or the various commanders, including the acting Deputy Commissioner Donald Yamasombi, Assistant Commissioner Crimes Hodges Ette, director crimes Joel Simatab and the NCD/Central Command.”