Buai Trade

Three men had initially travelled on a 60 horse-powered 23-footer boat from Wewak to Manus.

They left Wewak last Monday with sixty 10kg bags of betelnut however, their boat capsized, leaving them to drift at sea for three days before two of them were rescued last Friday morning.

Manus provincial police commander, Chief Inspector David Yapu, said one of them was found floating on the boat by fishermen from Lou Island.

The boat operator, on the other hand, managed to swim to Paia Island, between Lou and Baluan Islands, where he was rescued.

The highway will no longer allow frequent passage of buses and truck loads of buyers into the area to intercept local sellers who travel into the city to sell buai.

Central police commander Laimo Asi says in the past four years, since the setup of the Agevairua buai market, the community has been plagued by outsiders coming in and bring in a hosts of issues.

“Women and children have been living in fear to go about their daily routine as the outsiders have been abusive as well as intimidating them in their own villages,” Asi says.

PPC Laimo Asi says he is taking measures to try to deal with the influx of buai traders into the province by enforcing a road block along the Laloki and Doah areas.

As of last Friday, police personnel at the road block have turned back trucks and bus loads of buai buyers, while allowing the trucks with sellers to go into the city to sell their buai.

Police have been stationed at the check points since Friday and will be there until such a time Asi says the issues associated with the buai trade are dealt with.