BY JENNIFER KUSAPA
The High Court has reminded police officers to be punctual, vigilant and responsible when it comes to executing orders given by the courts.
Chief Justice Sir Albert Palmer highlighted this on Tuesday when he spoke to two leading officers of the Henderson police station who had been summoned before the courts earlier.
On Monday this week, the High Court gave summons for the officer in charge of the Henderson police station to appear in court following revelations by public prosecutions (DPP) that officers there had failed to make notice witnesses to appear in court.
Superintendent Edwin Sevoa and Senior Sergeant Saxon Sai turned up on Tuesday to answerable for this failure.
Speaking to Mr Sevoa and Mr Sai, Chief Justice Palmer said:
“Police officers are to be punctual, vigilant and responsible with regards to trials reasonable time should be allowed to service of summons issues by court and that is important in this case three weeks was given for the summons to be served and police officers on their part should see summons are served on witnesses and they appeared in court on the date required for hearing.”
Sevoa and Sai said the reason their officers had not given the DPP’s summons to the witnesses was due to logistics challenges.
However, Palmer said they did not have a vehicle to serve the summons but from Henderson Police station to the Solomon Star area, as been revealed by the officers, was about 10 to 15 minutes, why not take a bus or just took a 15 minutes’ walk to the area?
“In doing that they will earlier aware that the witnesses were no longer there during the three weeks when the summons were just lying down in their office without actioning.
“This case was set for trial but delayed due to the absence of witnesses it is so important that on a day, the trial is listed all stakeholders must ensure everyone ready for the trial and that is happening in this case.”
Sir Albert also explained in court the roles and responsibilities of police officers especially on serving the summons.
“How is the summons served? Every summons shall be served by a police officer primarily in Solomon Islands Summons are served by Police officers and given the challenge regarding transport challenges police officers must think outside the box, rather relying on that RSIPF vehicle.”
