The President of the Vanua’aku Pati, Joe Natuman has reacted strongly to moves by the current caretaker government to arrest him and other former opposition MPs.
Mr Natuman described the attempted move as a “political witch-hunt” saying it appears to be highly politically motivated and aims to try and tarnish their reputation and disturb current negotiations to form a new government.
The caretaker government had tasked as police team to arrest Natuman and the leader of Graon mo Jastis Pati, Ralph Regenvanu.
Speculation of the failed attempt was rife prior to the opening of the election campaign period and resurfaced this week on the eve of negotiations to form a new government.
There was also speculation about names of some police officers who were on the investigating team that successfully brought down the leaders of the parties in the current caretaker government by sending them to jail for corruption charges.
Natuman said the Vanua’aku Pati is not surprised by the moves of some of the people in the current caretaker government, the people in jail, and their cronies are reverting, to try and destabilize their negotiations.
“We are aware that an attempt to obtain a warrant of arrest for me was refused both by the magistrates Court and the supreme court yesterday (Tuesday) due to a lack of substance”, he said.
“I want to assure everyone from north to south that this is nothing new. This has been going on for quite sometime,” said Natuman.
“I am happy to respond to any queries that the police have. They do not need to obtain a warrant to arrest me,” he added.
The allegations stemmed from the period Natuman was prime minister and he undertook to continue a reconciliation process between the two rival factions of the Vanuatu Police Force by his predecessor, Moana Carcasses.
“As far as I am concerned, I did the best I could when I was prime minister to get things moving in the police force when I wrote that letter in question to try and reconcile the two factions within the force and bring unity and harmony to what should be the heart of our security system.
He told the media “Unfortunately this has been seriously compromised and corrupted by politicians”.
“It is one of the basic reasons why my government amended the Police Act to open up the police commissioner position to candidates from outside Vanuatu because it was becoming very obvious that the integrity of the police force was seriously undermined,” said Natuman.
“You have a greater majority who are trying to uphold the law, while another group is busy colluding with politicians who have corrupt agendas to fulfill in Vanuatu, including souring the recent national elections”.
“As far as our bloc is concerned, we will not entertain this non-sense when we get into power,” said Natuman.