BAD ROAD CONDITIONS; A CHALLENGE TO RURAL POLICING

THE people from Moreguina, Lalaura, Ganai, and other villages in the Abau District of Central Province has pleaded with the bad and deteriorating road conditions affecting service delivery including police service to the communities.

The villagers raised their concerns following the recent arrest and apprehension of 7 suspects involved in an arson and Sorcery Accusation Related Violence case or SARV in their village over the weekend.

They claimed the road condition has caused then to miss out on most government services, with police services being one of them.

Over the weekend 4 police vehicles braved their way through these muddy road conditions at Bam Village in the Cloudy Bay LLG of Central Province on an operation to apprehend the group of suspects involved in athe Sorcery Accusation Related Violence (SARV) case at Ganai Village in Abau District.

According to The Ganai villagers were surprised to see four police vehicles from Port Moresby in the village on Saturday night to apprehend suspects involved in a SARV and arson case that occurred two years ago.

Commander of NCD/Central Command and Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Benjamin Turi stated the villagers were happy to see police in the village to deal with the case that had separated families for some years whilst also adding that he was pleased with how those suspects behaved when they were surrounded by the police at around 11 PM in Ganai Village.

ACP Turi said, the suspects cooperated with the police, who got into the police vehicle and traveled another nine hours back to Port Moresby.

“I was pleased to hear that they assisted the police officers when the police vehicles got bogged down while they were returning back to Port Moresby.

They also told the police officers that most of the government services, like the police, cannot reach them because of the bad road conditions.

ACP Turi was pleased with the police units who executed the operation successfully, adding that this is now a message to others that the police will still come for you if you commit an offense.

He said the suspects are now detained at Sogeri Police Station, and a CID officer from Central is now taking charge of the case.