Fiji Today Fijitoday’s Blog

Thug to cop

 By UNAISI RATUBALAVU

Monday, April 27, 2009

 NOTORIOUS prisoner Saimoni Rokotunidau has switched from his prison uniform to a police uniform. And the Fiji Police Force has promised to help turn hardened criminals into law-abiding citizens whose experience law enforcers will rely on to crack down on criminal activities around the country.

After receiving his first pay pack last week, Mr Rokotunidau stood in front of 500 people at a Christian workshop at the weekend to testify about how he was saved from a life behind bars. Mr Rokotunidau, who has been in and out of prison the past 17 years for robberies in major towns and cities all over the country, was given a second chance by the police as part of the force’s prisoner reform strategy with the Fiji Prisons Department. SSP Waisea Tabakau said Mr Rokotunidau was recruited after he changed his ways. “We have taken Saimoni into the Fiji Police Force because we want to help reform these prisoners,” he said. “This is a new initiative that the force is doing for these hardened criminals. “The aim of this whole initiative is to reform and help these criminals go on the right path.”

It is understood that Mr Rokotunidau started as a driver with the Police Strike Back Team last week. He is one of the newly-recruited police constables with the force.

Mr Rokotunidau told the Be a Man workshop organised by the New Methodist Church in Suva that he used to live a life among some of the country’s worst criminals and had been on the run from the police. He said that he won the trust of the lawmen hot on his heels after he dedicated his life to God. He told participants at the workshop that since he made that decision, he was given a four-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Pajero and a job with the police force. In 2003, he said, he stowed away to the United States, surviving only on cucumbers and water, he did not eat nor drink anything for five before he reached Oakland in the US. He said that he when he returned to Fiji in 2005, one of his cases was cleared by judge, Justice Nazhat Shameem.

He said from then until now he has been cleared of all his convictions and serves the Lord faithfully. He said he only prayed that his previous convictions to be quashed and his new job gave him the chance to work hard and erase his past.

Mr Rokotunidau said there were a lot of bench warrants issued for his arrest and some other pending cases he has to answer to, but that is now all history.

Fijitimes