Parkop questions changes at police

National, Normal
Source:

By JEFFREY ELAPA

NATIONAL Capital District Governor Powes Parkop has raised concerns on the recent changes to the NCD police command and called on Police Commissioner Gari Baki to stop dismantling the successful NCD police command.
Parkop called on the commissioner to reverse his decision to remove Assistant Commissioner Awan Sete, Operations Commander Supt Andy Bawa and metropolitan Chief Supt Fred Yakasa.  
The governor, in a letter written to the commissioner, stated that the manner in which the changes were made was a matter within the constitutional prerogative but expressed his dissatisfaction as the changes were not made public and he was not briefed.
He said the command under Sete and Yakasa had done a tremendous job in reducing crime in the city and as a result the rate of opportunist crime had dropped by about 50%.
He added that the tireless efforts of the command had also resulted in the successful arrest of bank robber William Kapris and his accomplishes.
“These are major achievements and they (Sete, Yakasa and Bawa) are worthy of maintaining and further supporting instead of removing them.
“Their removal or pending removal is, therefore, against logic or common sense,” he said in the letter.
Parkop added that the Kapris case and investigations into it were still continuing and the officers commanding the investigations should not be removed as this would affect the investigations.
He said he was concerned because the investigations into the Kapris network implicated some police officers as well as some prominent people who had been allegedly linked to the crime and the changes would jeopardise its progress.
Parkop also said several appointments to serve under the new command were questionable when officers concerned were implicated  against criminal activities under suspicious circumstances.
“I’m concerned the appointment of Insp Ben Turi to head the CID division at NCD. This is the same officer who released two women charged with stealing more than K5 million of public money from the government,” he said.