NEARLY four years after he killed five people on the night of the Independence Day 7th July 2021 at Tenaru Bridge in Central Guadalcanal, Inmate Benson Daniel was able to reconcile with a victims’ family at Tetere Correctional Centre over the weekend.
The reconciliation ceremony was made possible by the Prison Fellowship Solomon Islands (PFSI).
Daniel was sentenced to prison for manslaughter for the death of late Daniel Maeke and other four lives at the bridge.
Daniel who was 19 years old when he committed the incident. He was also drunk at that time when drove a land cruiser during that fateful night.
He was spotted by the Police Patrol Team for careless driving when he took off from KGVI cross road at about 8pm to 9pm.
Police followed him and gave signs for him to stop but he continued on at a very high speed.
Along the road from Lee Kwok Kuen to Lunnga area, he met a traffic jam.
Bension tried to escape from the police by driving through the middle of the single lane road without indicating lights to other vehicles on the road.
His passengers told him to slow down and stop on the side of the road but he told the passenger to shut up and wind the windows up.
He continued to drive at a very high speed until prior to entering the Tenaru bridge, an oncoming vehicle entered the one way bridge from the Eastern end.
In an attempt to escape from the police vehicle that was behind him he veered the vehicle he was driving towards the old bridge.
At that time, a fundraising was held on the western end of the old bridge and there was packed crowd watching at the fundraising activity.
As Daniel veered onto the entrance of the old bridge he turned off the vehicle headlights making it difficult for him to see anything in front of him.
In the process, he hit and killed five people. He escaped but was arrested shortly.
He was charged and faced court before being jailed.
But through the Prison Fellowship Solomon Islands (PFSI) the reconciliation has materialized.
PFSI mediated the reconciliation formalities between the victim and offender families.
During the emotional reconciliation ceremony, the offender’s family members came face to face with the victim families, where acceptance and forgiveness had been convened with a cultural presentation of two shell money, cash and pig
The victim’s representative Mr. McDonald Maeke during the reconciliation ceremony said, his family and tribe have accepted the apology from Inmate Benson as everyone move forward and allow God to forgive them and solves their hatred towards each other because of past incident.
Inmate Daniel who spoke at the event said, reconciling with the immediate family of the victim is what he had been praying for since the day he was incarcerated.
“I also asked the victim’s family to give me true forgiveness from their heart.”
Gabriel Bate’e of Prison Fellowship Solomons added, there are two directions of forgiveness presented in the Bible.
These two directions are portrayed by that great symbol of our Christian faith: The Cross.
The Cross has two beams, – One Vertical, – One Horizontal, that represent the two directions of forgiveness.
The vertical beam represents the forgiveness that we all need to receive from God and can be received only through our identification with the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“The horizontal beam represents our relationship we our fellow men, and it speaks of the forgiveness that, in this case, has two directions: the forgiveness we need to receive from others, and the forgiveness we need to extend to others.
“Once again, the only place where we can receive the grace for that kind of forgiveness is at the Cross of Jesus Christ,” said Bate’e.
Deputy Commissioner Administration of CSSI Mr. Chris Bwekulyi acknowledge the tireless effort made by PFSI Team for making this reconciliation ceremony a successful.
“Reconciliation of inmate and their families with the victim and families are of paramount importance for the reintegration of inmates upon their release to their families and community.
“This aligns to the CSSI strategic direction 2023-2026, core function under prisoner management strategies,” said Bwekulyi.
Supervising Commandant Tetere Correctional Centre Mr. Charles Noli acknowledged and thanked the two parties for their respect displayed during the reconciliation ceremony.
This reconciliation ceremony was witnessed by Prison Fellowship Solomon Islands, CSSI Deputy Commissioner Administration, Director Rehabilitation, Tetere Police, and Members from both Parties (victim and offenders).
Certificates been signed off by two parties in recognition of this reconciliation and both parties welcomed and respect the reconciliation ceremony going forward.
– CSSI Press
