PNG Fraud and Anti-corruption Chief Timothy Gitua arrested

Deputy Director of the National Fraud and anti-corruption unit, Chief Inspector Timothy Gitua, has been arrested and charged with three counts of unlawful assault, threatening with a firearm and discharging a firearm in a public place.

Acting Deputy Police Commissioner and Chief of Operations, Jim Andrews, says in a statement today, that Mr. Gitua was arrested and charged on Friday and released on a K1,000 bail.

The allegations stemmed from an incident which happened on July 12 at the Amani nightclub in Port Moresby where Gitua is alleged to have assaulted a Chinese national and fired several shots, causing fear and panic amongst members of the public.

Mr. Gitua allegedly returned to the night club and paid one-thousand Kina in compensation but it is alleged that some of his colleagues from the National Fraud and anti-corruption unit returned to the club the next day and demanded K10,000 from the club management for injuries allegedly sustained by Gitua.

The club management registered the complaint and Mr. Gitua was arrested and charged.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Andrews says comments by NCD's Acting Metropolitan Police Commander, Perou N'dranou alleging a split within the Constabulary is not true.

Mr. N'dranou made these comments yesterday after suspended Assistant Police Commissioner Crimes, Thomas Eluh and the disbanded Task Force Sweep Team Chairman, Sam Koim went to Boroko Police Station and proposed a meeting with Commissioner Geoffrey Vaki, all senior officers and NCD-based members of the Constabulary.

A concerned Mr. Andrews says their action is totally unnecessary and the remark by N'dranou is also misleading.