Varley denies cover up in police force

Police Commissioner Matthew Varley has denied allegations of favouritism in the police force and says all cases of “unruly behaviour” will be dealt with accordingly.

The clarification came in response to the recent case of police officer Moffat Manelusi, who was implicated in two traffic incidents this year involving police vehicles.

The officer is the son of Police Deputy Commissioner of Operations, Gabriel Manelusi.

Mr Varley said there was no cover up in the case, which was still under investigation.

He admitted Mr Manelusi had also been charged in a separate case in 2015 and 2016, and was acquitted from drink and driving charge, which he said was dealt with accordingly by the police commissioner at that time.

Officer Manelusi’s G-plate license had been revoked, and he had been reassigned from front-line operational duties, pending the outcome of the investigation.

Mr Varley said he reviewed officer Manelusi’s current case and referred it back to the Professional Standards and Internal Investigations unit, PSII, for further investigation.

“I want to make it very clear, that there is  some suggestion of cover up or some suggestion of involvement that we are somehow not dealing with this case properly because he’s the deputy commissioner’s son, that is not true,” he said.

“In fact, I’ve spoken to the deputy commissioner about this myself, it was the deputy commissioner himself who reported the first case a couple of months ago to PSII and he did that because he understands the reason of integrity of the organisation and his obligations.”

By Lowen Sei