REPUBLIC of Fiji Military Forces commander Rear Admiral Viliame Naupoto has apologised to members of the public for the unnecessary panic his armed soldiers may have caused to more than 200 people outside the Fiji National Provident Fund’s Lautoka branch yesterday.
He said the five soldiers were called in to assist police control the crowd and were returning from their normal patrol of looking after vital assets in the greater Lautoka area.
Some people exited the queue after seeing military personnel in their uniforms.
The five soldiers urged people to keep a distance of two metres away from each other and to head home if their business was sorted.
“We are doing multiple operations in Lautoka in addition to assisting police in the lockdown,” Rear Admiral Naupoto said.
“We are also out patrolling all our vital assets, our reservoirs, our water intakes, beacon for the aircraft just to make sure those places are operating and nothing happens.
“I wish to offer my apologies to the people of Lautoka if we may have created unnecessary panic, we are doing a lot more to assist them.”
About five armed soldiers assisted police in controlling the crowd outside the FNPF’s Lautoka branch yesterday.
Rear Admiral Naupoto said they had to head straight to the FNPF’s branch as there was an urgent call for help because of the large crowd.
“In this kind of situation, you will not see arms again, these were the same people who were returning from a patrol, they came in to assist very quickly and they were wearing the same attire from the patrol.”
