BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

SUPERVISING Police Commissioner Juanita Matanga has revealed yesterday that police will destroy the last remaining blue boat soon.

Ms Matanga said they made an offer to the Ministry of Fisheries and their offer has been taken on board by the Ministry.

She said that they had been meeting with the fisheries ministry this week.

The reason why they made the offer was that Police has the capacity to dispose the blue boats.

“We intend to give that offer because we want to get rid of the Blue Boats issue,” Matanga said.

Matanga also said police are here to assist any organisation or ministry responsible whenever they need help from the Police.

She also said at this stage, they are still discussing the process of destruction and because it involves some technical issues, police will not comment further on the issue of destruction.

BY JARED KOLI

WITH observed lack of access to quality health services at the National Referral Hospital (NRH), a local civil society activist is on an initial campaign to collect signatories from patients to support a petition calling on the Prime Minister to call for a Commission of Enquiry (COE) into the medical and health service provided at NRH.

Ishmael Nori who is currently a patient at the NRH Surgical Ward said having spent some time now at the hospital, he has observed that a lot of things needs government to take seriously.

Mr Nori is now calling for at least two volunteers to assist him in collecting signatures from patients in all wards in the hospital towards this cause.

“We the people and ordinary citizens of this country deserve a St Vincent-like quality hospital service here too,” he said.

“I have observed that for many people, there is nothing much to do for them here, if we can have services that are accessed by our Ministers or Members of Parliament at St Vincent hospital here during the early stages of their sick, that could prevent deaths and save lives here,” he adds.

Nori also questions how the government prioritizes health workers, doctors, nurses and technical staff on specialised trainings.

He questioned a report on the Parliament subcommittee on health over the report of their 2009 sitting.

“Where is the report, nothing has been done, it could have been shelved somewhere, what is the government is doing with the report.

“What we want the government to do is to prioritise to save lives same as the quality of service at St Vincent hospital,” Nori said.

He said he will put together the petition for people who believe that this is a good cause, all for the sake of improving quality of service in the hospital, such as improved state of the art medical facilities and so forth.

“How can we afford this, knowing our needs, identifying our medical needs is what we want, and at the same time identify specialise training needs to serve our people.

“Besides hospital relocation, the government must look at this as a national project,” Nori said.

BY ALFRED PAGEPITU

GIZO

A family from Tarikukuri village in the Choiseul Bay area in Choiseul province are left homeless after their house was burnt to ashes on Wednesday.

Family members who related the incident to Island Sun Gizo yesterday said they suspect the fire had stemmed from a solar battery.

They said the incident occurred around 3pm.

The owner of the house and father of three children, Mr Warren Mene said no one was injured and his family escape unscathed.

The family however had not been able to salvage anything from their house.

“Nothing was salvaged from the blaze. My house is fully permanent with only a few areas left to complete. I am very sorry because I lost all my valuable tools and other important documents and materials to complete my house,” said Mene.

Mene has appealed for assistance from the general public and from responsible authorities in the form of materials so that he can rebuild his house.

He explained that his family are now residing with his wife’s relatives and they are seeking assistance.

Meanwhile, Taro police are looking into the incident.

With that, Taro provincial police commander (PPC) Mrs Cindar Nevol advises relatives in Tarikukuri village to remain calm and to refrain from taking the law in to their own hands as this case is now under investigation.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

SOLOMON Islands Attorney General James Apaniai has revealed yesterday that outstanding disciplinary cases against lawyers will be dealt with in the next few weeks.

He said first cases will be heard within the next few weeks and others will follow suit.

Mr Apaniai said there are lawyers who are currently without practice certificates, due to disciplinary charges laid against them.

“Some of these lawyers have been writing directly to me, complaining about their ability to practice and earn money due to these pending charges.

“They seem to assume that the disciplinary procedure is just a process, at the end of which they have a right to be issued with a practicing certificate.

“Unfortunately that is not the case,” Apaniai said.

He explained that the disciplinary committee have powers to impose a wide range of disciplinary penalties, one of which is to order that the lawyer concerned be struck off the roll altogether in appropriate circumstances.

He also said that the committee is not without its challenges. The committee has no office, no investigation officers and are not being paid. In many cases the AG had to attend to all these things by himself.

With his heavy workload and busy schedule, it should not be a surprise that it has taken so long for disciplinary cases to be dealt with.

“Therefore it is my hope that the new Legal Profession Bill 2017 will provide some solution to these challenges,” Apaniai added.

Meanwhile Chief Justice Sir Albert Palmer said on the issue of discipline the Attorney General has adequately explained and he encouraged the Disciplinary Committee to carry out hearings as soon as possible.

The Attorney General is the chair of the disciplinary committee with all private legal practitioners.

BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO

DECREASING number of tourists visiting the capital, Honiara, affects local cavers’ revenue in the months of December 2018 and January 2018.

A concerned local carver from Marovo Lagoon, Western Province told Island Sun the current trend of tourists coming into the country is decreasing and it really affects their selling.

He said the matter has become an issue for carver vendors when it comes to earning dollar for the day.

“This issue have affected most of us (carving sellers) when it comes to earn money in sustaining our livelihoods, also it will affect the continues cultural and traditionally arts and crafts promotion Solomon Islands venturing in.

“Having seen this issue affecting us we can’t sit longer under our booths waiting for cruise boats schedules to berth at Point Cruz wharf carrying number of tourists but to find possible ways to meet our daily expectations,” he said.

In relation he said responsible authorities should find possible ways in addressing this issue to help Solomon Islands’ local cavers in a better place to sell their products.

BY JARED KOLI

A wounding incident which later resulted in the death of a man at Hatare area in Marau, East Guadalcanal last Saturday is said to have been caused by the suspect having “marijuana intoxication”.

First-hand sources from Marau said that the alleged accused, a 22-year-old man has been a marijuana addict up to the time of the incident.

Sources claimed the suspect consumed marijuana and was intoxicated with the drug, resulting in the death of the deceased, a 40-year-old man.

One source close to witnesses said the deceased walked to One village, where the incident occurred, to purchase Solbako cigarettes on the night of the wounding.

Sources claim that the accused committed his actions without any prior provocation.

“There was no argument, or whatsoever,” said the source.

The deceased was transported to the National Referral Hospital and later died. The suspect has been charged with murder.

Meanwhile, concerned people from Marau are calling for tougher actions to curb drug use, not only in Marau but across the country.

Commenting in the Marau Facebook Forum, ‘Marau Sound Connect’ a Marau man said: “A direct deterrent approach is required to support police to effectively curb this increasing trend of drug abuse cases in the country.”

He adds, “Current legal processes to assist police should be looked at earnestly. Community leaders must be willing to report such cases, and prompt and effective handling of such cases is critical as a way forward.”

Another commentator, a female said, people that sell marijuana and home brewed beer widely known as kwaso must be dealt with accordingly by the full force of the law.

She said people consuming these illegal drugs are a threat to society and urged the police to take tougher actions against them.

An elder from Marau, John Biku said marijuana users are “unreasonably dangerous” and must be prevented at all cost.

“It is like a ticking time bomb that can explode at any time, and I appeal to the police and community leaders to be proactive in dealing with this issue,” Mr Biku said.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

THE President of the Solomon Islands Bar Association Silverio Lepe says court should be consistent and impose tougher sentences against child sex offenders.

He made the call following the increase in sexual violation against children.

“2018 has greeted us with an alarming degree of alleged sexual violence against children, the youngest being a two year old.”

He said such incident is sickening the community and something has to be done to deter such offences from increasing in our societies.

“I call on UNICEF, Ministry of Women and those who advocate for sexual violence against Women and Girls to conduct a survey as to whether or not the trend that we are seeing, is caused by a sudden change of attitude by men towards women and girls,” Mr Lepe said.

He also said that visiting the sexual offenders at Rove and interviewing them to find out what made them carry out these offenses against children will be a bonus.

Sending them to Rove is only half of the solution, Lepe said.

Lepe said learning and understanding why is another half of the solution, so that awareness can be made to stop future offender

By Taromane Martin

FOUNDER of Honiara based Islanders rugby club Mr Derek Pongi says this year they are aiming to be the best in both the 15s and 7s codes.

Mr Pongi says 2018 is an exciting year for their club who are expecting to take part in both regional and domestic rugby competitions.

He said their club is also expected to send some of their players over to Fiji to play for their sister club, Akina Brothers in the Congo 7s competition which will be hosted in Suva from January 26th to the 27th.

“Our club will send some players to Fiji over the coming weeks to play for our Fiji based team so I appeal to players to keep fit and healthy,” he said on the clubs’ Facebook page.

“2018 will be an interesting and exciting year for our club because we will participate and compete at domestic and international competitions and tournaments with the aim to win and become champion’s in15s and 7s code of the game.

“Players will travel to Fiji and our Fijian players will fly over to Solomon Islands so that we can help each other to strengthen our team to continue to be a powerful rugby team.

“Our club expect high standards of discipline from officials and players both on and off the field so be prepared to learn from each other as we prepare to take on the Challenges of 2018,” he adds.

Training for 2018 session according to the club patron will begin on Monday 22nd January at Panatina rugby oval.

“Current players and interested new players are all invited to be part of our training sessions,”Pongi said.