FIVE men have been arrested and charged for the recent riot and burning down of houses at Karaina Settlement at White River, West Honiara.
A remand application was made on Saturday for David Dawea Lakwolly, Erick Domo, David Danny Rabei, John Metua and Gilbert Atisa Mweela in the Honiara Magistrate Court.
The men aged between 30 and 50 were however released on strict bail conditions with a principal bail of $2,000 for each of them.
Three of them are from Reef Islands while two are from the Pileni group.
They are all facing one count of arson except for Metua who is facing a charge of willful and unlawful damage.
These were in relation to allegations on August 20 and 21, this year at Karaina where four homes were completely destroyed and burnt down.
Police said the alleged incident instigated over money from the West Honiara Constituency which was allocated to the Karaina Settlement.
It was alleged the lump sums of money that were issued to a man from Karaina on behalf of the community was not equally distributed.
He was alleged by police to have shared the money with his relatives from Reefs, which resulted in ill feelings amongst other ethnic party, which is the Pileni group.
This resulted in a heated argument and led to the burning of his home.
They allegedly managed to put out the fire and it only consumed part of the house.
It was further alleged that as a result of this, the extended family of this person retaliated by throwing rocks to the Pileni group’s house and as a result three homes were completely burned down.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
