BY SAMIE WAIKORI

Auki

FIVE “severe mental disorder” or mentally ill cases have been reported at Kilu’ufi Mental Unit for the first quarter of the year.

Doctor in-charge of the mental unit, Dr Rex Maukera revealed this during an interview yesterday.

He said these five new cases add to the already exisiting 23 “relapse cases” (those already attended the hospital).

Maukera said there were minor cases also reported to the hospital, but the reported figures are only for those admitted at the hospital.

He said the in-and-out flow of patients continues and that is an evidence that ‘severe mentally disorder is an issue’.

“The capacity we have at Kilu’ufi especially on accommodation is 20 beds, 10 for males and the other 10 for females.

“And an average a patient can keep at Kilu’ufi under our care is two to three months before discharge.

“But as experienced only small number we kept on regular basis compare to number out in the community.

“That shows severe mentally disorder is an issues and need to deal with,” Maukera said.

He said the alarm now is severe mental disorder is not on a decrease or stable rate, but it’s on the rise.

Maukera said it’s a serious concern which not only implies Malaita province only but the whole of the country.

When asked on their findings of causes to mentally ill patients reported to Kilu’ufi hospital, he said it’s multi-factual where it’s hard to pin-point certain areas as the root cause.

Maukera said people got up with the illness because of stress, marijuana, flow of the disease within family history and many other areas.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

THE committal papers regarding the three separate bank armed robbery cases will be made on April 4.

This is after the prosecution tendered the committal papers to the court yesterday.

The incident occurred in 2015 and 2016 where police alleged that certain men wearing masks and armed with weapons robbed the Bank of South Pacific banks in Honiara and Auki.

The three cases were previously committed to the High Court as the nature of the cases were quite serious.

One of the cases is in relation to the alleged Westpac Bank robbery in 2015.

Police alleged that the men were robbing about $4 million after chopping off a security guard’s wrist between 10am and 11am of January 19, 2015.

Police said that after they took the money they drove off in the westerly direction at very high speed.

Police and the public chased the car which resulted in it crashing at Kakabona.

Police said when the car overturned, five men came out from the car with knives and threatened that no one could go near them but residents at Kakabona chased them when they heard from police that they were the suspected robbers.

Prosecution alleged that during the robbery one of the robbers approached the security guard with a knife to attack him but he fell onto the cash box and rolled helplessly onto the main road.

At this stage and another accused allegedly jumped out with a long bush knife aiming to chop the security’s head but got the security guard’s wrist instead when the guard tried to avoid the knife.

It was then that his left wrist was taken out completely.

Police alleged it was sheer luck that only his wrist was chopped off, as it could have been his head.

Despite the injury, police said his right arm never let go of the cash box, prompting the attacker to continue hacking at him with the knife on the elbow.

Police alleged the robbers, some of whom wore masks, then took off in a waiting vehicle.

Another separate bank robbery case is in relation the incident occurred on November 27, 2015 in Auki.

Police said the men were armed with dangerous weapons and one of them had a gun and fired a shot while standing outside the bank as lookout, the court was told. While other men stayed in the getaway car

Two others went into the bank and filled up bags with about SBD$200,000 and US$10,000, the court heard.

The prosecution said that another shot was fired before the men left the bank.

And the third bank robbery case is in relation to the attack on the two Asian businessmen outside the old Westpac bank now BSP

Police alleged that the four accused were masked and armed with a knife when they attacked two Asian men as they were about to enter the BSP bank.

One of the businessmen was struck with a knife and also shot from a sling, the court was told.

The Office of the Director Public Prosecution appears for the state while Lawyers from the Public Solicitor’s Office represents all accused.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

A suspended police superintendent has pleaded guilty to five charges of traffic related offences before the Principal Magistrate Augustine Aulanga on Tuesday.

The police superintendent was charged in relation to a vehicle accident which occurred on March 1 at the Kukum road Florence Young School junction.

He was charged with charges of careless driving, presence of alcohol in a person’s blood, driving unlicensed motor vehicle and other two charges of traffic related offence.

Police said when they did a breathalyser test on the accused he had a high percentage of alcohol in his blood.

Police said that around 2.45am on that morning the defendant was driving up the Florence young junction road and suddenly drove off the road and hit an electric post.

Police traffic officers were called to the scene and confirmed that the accused was drunk. He was arrested and charged for the incident.

After the accused pleaded guilty the court then adjourns the case for sentencing today.

BY ALFRED PAGEPITU

GIZO

WESTERN province Assembly is expecting to approve its budget of $32.9 million today.

Provincial finance minister Mr Lester Sa’omasi says 61 percent of it is allocated for recurrent programmes and 39 percent will be for capital projects.

He said most provincial divisions have resubmitted proposals based on last year’s plans, while only a handful have opted for new programmes for this year – aimed at improved and achievable performances.

“Provincial Assembly had again been allocated with the highest portion of $4.8m but that was after their original bid was trimmed for obvious reason.

“The acme bench mark was also used to reduce the provincial administrating allocation to $3m, a reduced of 33 percent.”

Sa’omasi however says two allocations have been labelled as inadequate, which he believes will pose a problem for the next government. He advises that if faced with this challenge, the next government should mobilise its local resources.

He adds that the office of the Premier’s allocation stands at $2.3m.

BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

THE standard of quality room service in the country’s tourism outlets is set to be improved with an initiative by the ministry of culture and tourism (MCT).

Solomon Islands’ newly approved and introduced Tourism Accommodation Minimum Standards and Classification system is the first of its kind in the country.

MCT Permanent Secretary, Mr Andrew Nihopara said this at the ministry’s Minimum Standards and Classification Training programme at Heritage Park Hotel on Tuesday.

He stressed the need for the system and how it will contribute to tourism growth in the country.

Nihopara said Solomon Islands tourism industry currently holds a record of about 188 accommodation facilities in total that are registered with the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau.

He added that this figures as a total of 1854 rooms with a further 3,685 beds inventory nationwide.

However, the Permanent Secretary said that when it comes to room quality, only 17 percent of room inventory is determined as “market ready” while the remaining 83 percent are rated below the required standard of quality.

In relation, he said that this situation sought the ministry’s attention to address the quality aspect of their room inventory through a classification system, hence they see it as a platform that will enable them to not only classify the various accommodations throughout the country into specific relevant categories but also to develop a set of minimum standards for each.

Nihopara further spoke of the latter and emphasised how the tourism accommodation minimum standards and classification system will bring in a huge impact to the country’s tourism industry.

“Having this classification system with relevant minimum standards will provide the guideline for upgrading of the existing accommodations in order to meet visitor expectations, enhance our competiveness and also secure confidence by tourism wholesalers to include more rooms in holiday packages.

“Once implemented, the impact will include increased number of high quality rooms, enhancing the competitiveness of our destination, increasing confidence to sell the Solomon Islands in the markets and will hugely enhance our ability to meet visitor expectations and guarantee satisfaction,” he said.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

THE case against the former permanent secretary for Ministry of Infrastructure Development is listed for closing submission today.

Trial into the case has been completed and is in its closing stage.

Henry Aife Murray and his wife Rose were charged for corruption related offences.

The Murrays were charged in relation to an allegation relating to a series of offences alleged between 2014 to 2017 in relation to multiple payments of motor vehicle hire charges to a company that police alleged was registered to Mr Murray and his wife.

The value of those payments is estimated to the excess of 1.1 million dollars and as a result of that they both face a range of serious charges.

Prosecution alleged that those payments were allegedly made through cheques and electronic funds transfers; were deposited into their ANZ account in the name of Krash Transport and Marketing.

Lazarus Kwaiga of L & L lawyers is representing both defendants