Kolamaafushi Council says building for police would only rented

Island Council of Kolamaafushi, Gaafu Alifu Atoll, has refused to let the Maldives Police Service resume its temporarily terminated services in the island, saying that the government had refused to pay rent for the building where the police are supposed to establish their station.

Kolamaafushi, one of the islands considered as a stronghold of former President Mahomet Nasheed and his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), has a Council whose majority is held by MDP.

Ahmed Jameel, President of Kolamaafushi Council, told Sun Online today that they had repeatedly requested the government to resume police services in the island. He also said that the government wanted to resume police work there at the same building which the police used before services were temporarily terminated on 8th February last year.

However, the Council, according to Jameel, would not accept it. The Council, he said, wants the government to hire a building where the police would reestablish their station. “The government rejects this offer”, said Jameel.

“The Police Station in this island was shut down after the incidents which occurred in front of it on the 8th of February last year”, said Jameel. “After that, there has been no policing here, and we have requested the government to resume services. The Government asks us to provide a building, and we have told government officials that the same building where the police were stationed, which is the island “Ravvehige”, could be rented for the purpose. However, the government says that police services could only be restarted when a building is provided for free”.

Jameel said that theft, drug offences and gang fights have become rampant in the island due to the absence of the police in the island, and that there is no mechanism for preventing this.

Adnan Hassan, the only non-MDP member in the Council, who is a member of Divehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), told Sun Online that the police shut down their station when MDP supporters gathered in front of the station, attacked and caused destruction to the building, and threatened to burn down the place. Adnan also said that MDP supporters asked the handful of police officers at the station to shut down the place and get out, threatening to burn the place otherwise.

Jameel also said that the government has refused to hire a building to recommence police services in Kolamaafushi.

MDP supporters took to the streets in most of the islands of Addu City and some in Gaafu Alifu and Gaafu Dhaalu, and set police stations and court buildings on fire, causing financial damage worth some 200 million Rufiyaa on the 8th of February, after their leader Mahomet Nasheed was forced to resign after the police and military refused to carry out his unconstitutional and illegal orders. After the acts of terrorism, committed with no regard to human life and public property, police services and judicial services in a number of islands were disrupted for varying periods in about ten to twelve islands.

The Maldives Police Services has said that police services would be resumed in islands where 8 February brought disruption only after the cases are properly investigated.