Police

This is according to the daily crimes summary provided by the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police and Chief of Operations.

The 16 crimes include:

• Two killings
• One robbery
• Six motor vehicle robberies
• One stealing (motor vehicle)
• Two fraud cases
• Three grievous bodily harm, and
• One abduction

Two crimes were reported in Morobe Province while 14 were in the National Capital District.

Brief statements of crimes reported nationwide:

The two were identified as Aidan Hevoho, 31, who is a policeman attached with the Waigani Support Unit, and Lesley Aihi, 31, a Police Reservist also based at the Waigani Police Station in Port Moresby.

Police allege that on January 1st 2019, at around 3.30pm, both accused drove over to Andrew Tambiri’s residence at Waigani in a white five door motor vehicle with no registration number and assaulted Tambiri and another person, namely Handabe Rex.

Police in Lae made this known after they realised that though numerous allegations were made against members of the force, formal complaints were not filed.

“A post on social media is good but you must follow it up with factual evidence by way of registering your complaint in person, being interviewed by Internal Investigation Unit members and providing a signed statement,” said Chief Superintendent Anthony Wagambie Jnr.

“Only through this can your complaint be acted on.”

Commissioner Baki made this comment following announcements made by the National Capital District Metropolitan Superintendent, Perou N’Dranou, of his intention to pay cash bonuses for prescribed number of arrests made by police men and women within his command.

The NCD metropolitan superintendent says plans are already in place for policing strategies for 2019.

Chief superintendent Perou N’Dranou says the Police Commissioner’s annual conference late last year has given them the mandate to enforce changes.

He highlighted that one of the concern areas for 2018 was the sexual assault of minors.

“We’ve been working on it,” he said. “We saw some improvements at the end of the year (2018) and we tend to work more on it.”

East New Britain Province reported a quiet New Year’s Eve and day celebration with no major incidents.

Provincial Police Commander, Joseph Tabali, said as was for Christmas, the province was quiet. The only incident was a missing boat from Namatanai which was recovered on Sunday in the Duke of York waters.

In Manus, local police, assisted by Mobile Squad 18, were out in full force On December 31^st, 2018, and January 1^st, 2019.

Anthony Wagambie Jnr says they have already started the pre-festive season operations.

The Lae police boss has given residents the assurance that his team will be out in full force during the Christmas and New Year period.  

“They should expect to see police all over the place, we’ll have them positioned in all parts of the city,” he said.

“And I encourage the public to make use of our toll free number – 7090 3300 – to call police if they see anything happening, or anything about to happen, or if they feel unsafe.

This is according to the daily crime summary provided by the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police and Chief of Operations, Jim Andrews.

The 28 crimes include: two murders, five rape cases, two robberies, three break-in domestic, one stealing of motor vehicle, four stealing, one fraud, eight grievous bodily harm and two abduction cases.

Eight crimes were reported in Morobe Province, six in Enga, four in Southern Highlands and ten reported in the National Capital District.

Brief statements of crimes reported nationwide:

The Commissioner said 10 were sent on Monday to assist local police prevent opportunists from taking advantage of the locals’ frustration.

Commissioner Baki also confirmed that the officer driving the vehicle, was a member of the Lae Police who travelled in two patrol boats in to Alotau for a pit stop, before heading out to Port Moresby.

He said while there, local police asked for assistance after reports came that a hard-core criminal, who escaped jail in Port Moresby, was in town.

In a notice released today, PPL said: “Electricity supply will not be restored until the situation returns to normal and PNG Power is sure of its properties and staff safety.”

This newsroom was advised by locals on ground that tension remains high while the town is still on lockdown, and gunshots have been heard in town since yesterday evening.

“As of last night people had been burning tyres and there was a shootout at Goilanai Bridge,” Loop PNG was told.