QILIHO ON VIRAL VIDEO:
ORDERS INTERNAL INVESTIGATION
Police Commissioner Brigadier-General Sitiveni Qiliho, in a statement, said the Police officers captured in a video that went viral on social media could have handled the situation differently.
This was Brigadier-General Qiliho’s response to a video of Police officers allegedly manhandling a public service vehicle (PSV) driver. He has also directed the Internal Affairs Director to investigate the alleged incident.
The video depicts an officer in civilian clothing repeatedly demanding the driver to show him his licence.
He does this without first identifying himself as a Police officer. The video further shows another officer in uniform appearing to be manhandling the same bus driver. “The officer could have handled the situation differently to diffuse what was becoming a difficult situation as the bus driver after repeated requests to hand over his driver’s license refused to do so,” Brigadier-General Qiliho said.
“The bus driver’s refusal to co-operate was at the time inconvenient other road users when he refused to move his bus from the said location, which was blocking traffic.”
The bus driver, however has been charged with failure to produce a driving licence, Police spokesperson Ana Naisoro said.
President of the Bus Operators Association, Mr Nisar Ali Shah said the association and the bus company would wait for the law to take its on course.
“Let the law take effect, the Fiji Police will ensure appropriate action is taken by the misconduct of the officer on the bus driver in question,” he said.
“The bus company involved, and the association will just wait for the Police forces action on the matter.
“The by-law states that when a bus driver is seated at the driver’s seat, no one has the authority to remove or hassle him from his seat,” he said.
Questions were sent to the bus company, which the driver is said to be working for, but answers were not available when this edition went to press.
As of yesterday, the video has garnered more than 93,000 views, 1400 reactions, 1400 comments and was shared more than 1500 times. It was posted on Sunday.
The bus company involved, and the association will just wait for the Police forces action on the matter.
Brigadier-General Sitiveni Qiliho Police Commissioner
The United States of America Ambassador to Fiji Joseph James Cella has reaffirmed his Government’s commitment in working with the Fiji Police Force.
Ambassador Cella paid a courtesy call to the Police Commissioner BrigadierGeneral Sitiveni Qiliho at the Fiji Police Headquarters in Centerpoint, Laucala on Monday.
He was responding to Brigadier-General Qiliho who, thanked the US in providing assistance and training in different areas of policing as well as dealing with transnational crimes and look forward to working more with them.
“We thank the US Government for the training conducted to our Drugs Unit through the D.E.A on synthetic drugs and identification of precursors delivered in Suva,” Brigadier-General Qiliho said. “The importance of dealing with crime that is transnational is crucial because what is happening in the US we also have it here, but a matter of scale and previous collaborations with your agents and stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education where we have conducted awareness programmes in schools have proven to be very effective, and we hope to see what else we can do together”. Ambassador Cella said: “We’ll stand with you and by your side and in our commitment and wish to reiterate that from the United States.
“The United States is also suffering from the scourge of both human and drug trafficking and life and death situations as the scars that remain are both lifelong, costly and tear apart families.”
Ambassador Cell was also accorded a quarter guard welcome ceremony and an overview brief of Policing operations. Mr Cella was sworn-in as Ambassador to Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga, and Tuvalu on November 25, 2019 and has over 25 years of experience in public service, the private sector, and nonprofit work.
“The point of my testimony in the US Senate when I was being considered for this post, I spoke to my nature in that as one of a bridge-builder to all those that I meet individually or in institutions, such as your great institution and to build new bridges where they can be built and preserve and enhance others where opportunities are available” he said.