BY JENNIFER KUSAPA
POLICE Commissioner Mostyn Mangau has refuted claims by journalist Alfred Sasako accusing the police boss of losing a report on the assassination plot on Prime Minister Sogavare.
Mr Mangau said he has not received any report as alluded to by Mr Sasako.
“At no time has my office received such a report as mentioned by the author. However, the National Criminal Investigation Department (NCID) of the Royal Solomon Island Police Force (RSIPF) is currently investigating the matter,” Mangau said.
Sasako in a letter to Island Sun over the weekend has described articles published by the paper last week as “a bundle of lies” [See letter to the editor on page 6].
One of the articles he attacked, titled – Sasako invited by police for questioning over his article ‘Top Secret Out’ – reported on Commissioner Mangau telling a press conference that police had ‘invited’ Sasako for questioning over his media article claiming an assassination plot against prime minister Sogavare.
Sasako claimed Commissioner Mangau was given detailed briefings with supporting document on the assassination plot during weekly security briefings.
He said the reason the two CID officers had wanted to see him was that their boss had “lost” the report on the assassination plot.
“The second article appeared last Friday. It is a report which appears to be based on Commissioner Mostyn Mangau’s weekly news conference the day before.
“Nothing the commissioner said could be further from the truth.
“Indeed, if the news article written by Island Sun was a true account of what Commissioner Mangau had said, then the Commissioner was deliberate in his intent to mislead the people of Solomon Islands and to tarnish my name.
“At best the Commissioner’s statement was deliberately designed to mislead and to cast doubt on my character as a potential candidate in the upcoming national general election.
“Can you imagine a police commissioner entrusted with top secret reports but failed in his duty to do the right thing?” Sasako said in his letter.
