More Fraud Squad cases unravel

By PNG Echo

What do Attorney General, Ano Pala, Aloysius Hamou and Francis Potape have in common?

Well, while the recent circus that was the Vote of No Confidence was keeping the whole nation entertained and distracted, in the nation’s courts, the three, abovementioned, gentlemen’s criminal charges were being overturned, quashed, and disallowed.

All three were cases being prosecuted on behalf of the Fraud Squad – featuring Messrs Gitua and Damaru.

These cases have been variously found to be incompetent, ill–conceived, or both as indeed was the case against Justice Sakora – thrown out too.

Other Fraud Squad cases still to be decided are that of lawyer Tiffany Twivey, John Mangos of PNG Power and the Prime Minister himself.

Given the precedents of Fraud Squad incompetence and overconfidence in their ability to influence the courts, that these cases should go the same way is more than likely (except if Justice Colin Makail is hearing them, that is)

The Fraud Squad are not conducting legitimate investigations into corruption but overseeing a witch-hunt.

It’s politically strategic

These rogue elements in the police force are aiding and abetting those with a political agenda to effect that agenda, illegitimately, through the courts and these three recent cases illustrate that all too well. See the details here

It’s the premise that those charged with an offence occupying high office should step down that excites the Fraud Squad and their political sponsors and urges them on to more spurious arrests.

Enough arrest warrants and they could empty the parliament and remove all the judges that they are finding unco-operative. (Was Sakora’s arrest meant as a warning to the others?)

Indeed, had the Attorney General stepped down on his arrest warrant being effected his electorate would have been without a member for the last two years and the national parliament would have been deprived of his services. And all for specious charges that held no water (as was found in the judgment).

But it is the ‘step down’ demand on the Prime Minister, in particular, that has culminated in the opposition seeking the court’s aid to force a Vote of No Confidence in the parliament – a vote that proved to have no chance of getting up – and the Supreme Court complied.

There is considerable debate in PNG as to whether the Supreme Court overstepped their jurisdiction and breached the separation of powers.  More money will no doubt be expended on finding the answer to that.

That is, more money than the compensation likely to be claimed by all of those who were burned by the Fraud Squad’s incompetence and misguided zealotry.

These men of the Fraud Squad may be presenting themselves as God’s police; occupying a moral high ground that they have personally defined, but in actuality they are nothing short of loose cannons and dangerous vigilantes.

The political opposition is looking to the nation’s courts to effect a political solution that they are incapable of effecting in legitimate, political ways.

God help us all, if the courts co-operate any further – and yet, the three decisions this week give me hope that the law will triumph over vested interests.