THE Solomon Islands People’s Democratic Coalition (SIPDC) has denied any links or responsibilities to Tuesday morning’s shooting incident on Mbike Island in Ngella.
Police on Tuesday confirmed that several shots were fired resulting in the damage of a fast craft (boat) which was believed to have carried Members of Parliament (MP’s) to the island resort a day prior to the Prime Ministers Election.
Rumours have it that the SIPDC had initiated and planned the attacks on the opposite camp and have had something to do with it, with the intension of preventing them (MP’s) from arriving back in Honiara in time for the Prime Minister’s Election.
However, a spokesperson from the SIPDC camp denied the allegations, adding that none of the SIPDC MP’s had any interest of disturbing the Prime Minister’s election.
“None of us, the SIPDC members have anything to do with the alleged attack on Mbike Island. None of us even had the intension to do so as we were prepared for the Prime Minister’s Election.
“In fact we were confident ahead of the Prime Minister’s election that we would form the next government despite the mass media campaigns that we had a numerical disadvantage compared to the DCC camp.
“We were expecting six MP’s from the DCC camp to switch allegiance and vote for our candidate during the secret ballots,” he said.
He then accused DCC’s own camp of orchestrating the attacks in attempts to deter their MPs from switching to SIPDC on the day of voting.
“The truth of the matter is that it was their own camp that orchestrated this, with the intension of deterring their MPs, some of whom we had hope would join the SIPDC on Tuesday,” he said.
Meanwhile, a joint task force made up of the Royal Solomon Islands Police and the PPF (Participating Police Force) are investigating the Mbike Island shooting incident with Police Commissioner, Frank Prendergast assuring the public that the investigation is their top priority.
By JEREMY INIFIRI