KOLA DEFENDS LATEST MOTOR COLLISION ACCIDENT

The Deputy Police Commissioner Walter Kola says flat tyres caused his collision with the post in Honiara – the accident happened in the early hours of Friday last week.

Mr Kola made the statement in a letter published in today’s Letters to the Editor column in the Solomon Star newspaper.

The Deputy Police Commissioner also declared that he was alone in the executive police vehicle and that there was no other officer in the vehicle with him at the time of the accident, as was reported.

He said flat tyres were the cause of the ‘sliding collusion’.

He said “depending on the outcome of the technical assessment of the damage…for sure the accident was caused by the flat tyres”.

Responding to media reports that a junior officer traveling with him that time would take the blame for the accident, the Deputy Police Commissioner said “there is no reason for it” as he assumes “there was a technical accident caused by flat tyres”.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Police Commissioner says he makes the comments for the purpose of fair reporting.

Meanwhile, the Malaita Ma’asina Forum has called for a professional standards investigation into the recent motor accident involving a senior Royal Solomon Islands Police Force officer.

A general statement recently released by police said “the Commissioner’s office has initiated an inquiry into a motor collision, following an executive motor accident”.

The Solomon Star newspaper last week reported that “Deputy Police Commissioner, Walter Kola was again the subject of an internal police inquiry after being involved in yet another traffic accident.”

Last week’s collision was the second motor accident involving Mr Kola after his first case in July 2011 when the Deputy Commissioner drove his vehicle into a residential home at Titinge, in Honiara.

MMF President Charles Dausabea told journalists this week, the pressure group calls for a professional standards investigation into the matter.

“We call for a professional standards investigation to go straight to court just as any normal traffic case to let the courts decide. I strongly urge the Acting Police Commissioner never repeat what you’ve done in his first case, which involves only an internal investigation as you are losing our confidence in the Force. We strongly urge you and your executive to take the case to court like any normal traffic case and let the court decide.”

Meanwhile, the Malaita Ma’asina Forum says they repeat their call for a local professional to take the post of Police Commissioner for Solomon Islands.