Tongan Police said they are not investigating a threat to shoot the Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva which was revealed earlier this week because the Prime Minister did not want them to.
The threat was revealed during a heated debate between Hon Pohiva and Lord Tu’ilakepa on Monday in Parliament.
Lord Tu’ilakepa told Hon Pohiva a caller told him during a telephone call he wanted to shoot the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister told the House he knew the person who made the threat.
However Tonga’s Minister of Police Hon Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa told Kaniva News Police were not probing the shooting threat because the Prime Minister did not want them to investigate.
According to Hon. Tu’i’onetoa the Prime Minister knew about people who were behind the threat before it was revealed in the House.
“He just joke with us saying I am available I have no soldiers or police to protect or escort me around anyone wants to do anything to me no one stop them,” Hon Tu’i’onetoa said of the Prime Minister.
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Shooting threat against Prime Minister revealed, but Pohiva says he knows who made the threat
Security
Hon Pohiva could be the first Prime Minister of Tonga who refused to be provided with protective security services.
He maintained he has nothing to fear and for him to have security guards to protect him means taxpayers would have to pay.
But this has caused great concerns from the public who said the government has a responsibility to protect the leader of the nation.
Supporters of the idea who talked to us this week after we published the story about the shooting threat against the Prime Minister but wished not to be identified said the Prime Minister attended a public meeting in the United States without a bodyguard.
They said that was unacceptable and it was not safe for the Prime Minister to be without someone to protect him while visiting overseas countries.
This week in Auckland thousands of protesters kept police busy by blocking main intersections and some of the motor way off ramps in the heart of the city in protest at New Zealand leaders’ signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.
On Firday at Waitangi the Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce was hit by a dildo thrown at him by a female protesters who shouted: “that’s for raping our sovereignty”.
A Police officer immediately escorted the woman away .
