By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
Now that this dodgy Sam character is finally dragged out of hiding by the police, lets all hope and pray, the unsolved hit and run road death of that boy at Vaitele is set on speed mode.
Final closure of the tragedy is long overdue especially the prolonged grieving by the family involved.
It is going on 3-years since this tragedy dragged us through the drama and trauma of allegations that the outspoken opposition MP Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi, drove the car that killed the innocent victim.
The unproven claims against the legislator by this Sam character is largely to blame.
It is basically how it all started.
The dirty manipulation of heartless, devious, party politics made it worse.
Anti-Lealailepule detractors latched on, like blood sucking leeches, to drag the integrity of the MP along a muddled mudpath .
What better way to slam the door on his opposing ‘loud mouth’ attacks on Government than to assassinate the integrity of his leadership character.
Regrettably, the upstanding role of the Ministry of Police was shovelled into this same dirt, when they failed to slam Lealailepule behind bars.
Public condemnation scoffed at the admitted police struggles to collect enough evidence to warrant a legal conviction.
Again this dubious Sam character carried the brunt of the blame when he allegedly went into hiding from the police.
What followed next turned sadly shameful.
The PM dumped her Associate Minister of Police from office.
The Commissioner of Police terminated the services of two police officers.
The officers were linked to what was seen and felt to be a corruption in the official chain of command on the call for duties.
It led also to a stern warning by the Commissioner of Police to members of the police force to stay away from politics.
Both the Associate Minister and the police officers were all supposedly linked to an independent investigation done without normal regulated approval.
The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, a senior Cabinet member was also implicated but waltzed out unfettered in the end.
The issue sparked back into headline attention last week during Parliament session.
The Minister of Agriculture stormed condemingly against police admission at the lack of evidence while the Minister of Police was responding to a member’s enquiry.
The Acting PM quickly interjected for the matter to be better left for discussion in Cabinet rather than in open Parliament, when it appeared the two Cabinet Ministers were heading into a heated exchange.
The Minister of Police had by then made it clear, in a tone of “if you don’t like it, go do it yourself”, the rights for private prosecution in court for anyone.
His response was in general terms but appeared markedly slanted towards the sudden outburst by his Cabinet colleague responsible for agriculture.
Shortly after this recent episode in the drama and trauma of the Vaitele unsolved road death, this Sam character appeared.
Police search were rewarded at last when the elusive suspect was finally apprehended.
While he is reportedly in custody awaiting court appearance, the onus is now on the police to fill in the blanks.
Whether this guy was telling the truth or not in his allegations, it should not end there. No way!
We need to know why he had to hide if he was telling the truth. Was his life threatened? Did the police intimidated him in a way he feared for his life as alleged by critics?
Who covered his ‘hide from police’ costs. Why?
If he was lying, then why did he target MP Lealailepule? Did he make his selection randomly or was he made to name the MP. There is surely more!
The police should give it their all to rip out all the secrets this Sam character holds.
It is a cleansing act they must take if they want to restore their shattered credibility this Sam character is responsible for.
If they can also confirm from their investigations the involvement of accomplices or whomever, regardless of high standing either in politics, Government or wherever, by all means haul their backside in.
Slap them with the harshest criminal charges possible, if just to serve future notice, to all who dares to follow in the steps of this Sam character.
If politics are directly involved do please expose to the full extent the people responsible.
We the people of Samoa are no joke. We are not here for our political leaders to trivial with.
Get that straight.