Wewak

Those intending to travel, holding onto a valid ticket and have queries are encouraged to visit a PNG Air sales office or an agent to be served.

Acting Chief Commercial Officer, Nancy Nakikus said "PNG Air is looking forward to operate flights and continue to connect people".

"We are looking forward to getting normalcy back into PNG and giving our people a quality service they deserve,"

Acting Deputy Police Commissioner and Chief of Operations, Donald Yamasombi, said the last time Wewak residents saw policemen on motorcycles was about 20 years ago. He said this time the younger generation will get a chance to see and appreciate the role of traffic police mounted on these classic looking police motorcycles.

While officiating at the handover ceremony in Wewak last week, Deputy Commissioner Yamasombi urged traffic police personnel in Wewak to use the motorcycles wisely and look after them with great care and responsibility.

St. Benedict’s Campus President, Dr. Lawrence Arokiaraj, said with the completed classroom and assimilation room, the university is ready for the new intakes.

This follows the visit of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to the Campus last year where he officiated the ground breaking ceremony of the Boram School of Nursing.

Dr Arokiaraj thanked the Prime Minister, the Minister for National Planning, Richard Maru, and the Government for the support and confidence in the university to facility the training of nurses for the country.

This follows the successful commissioning of the NID roll-out in Pomio; one of the most remote districts only accessible by air and sea.

National Planning and Monitoring Minister Richard Maru recently made the announcement.

Connecting provincial capitals provides people in remote and rural areas a means of getting connected to PNG Civil and Identity Registry’s BID Database in Port Moresby.

 He said this when responding to Ambunti-Dreikikir MP, Johnson Wapunai, in Parliament on Tuesday.

Wapunai said there were rumours the project would not begin because the Government had no funding.

O’Neill said the project will be launched early next month and the funding for the project has been secured through a Czechoslovakian EXIM Bank Loan and counterpart funding from the Government.

“The Government has signed off on a concessional loan from Czechoslovakian Government,” said O’Neill.

However, the issues will be addressed on Wednesday this week.

The Wewak Urarember team was one out of four participating teams in the two-day tournament, winning the finals on Saturday against Viaq Sharks with 14-10 tries.

However, complaints were later raised by rival teams stating that the team had fielded 27 players, hence the delay in the golden pass.

The tournament, only in its second year in the province, saw these strong teams clash in the hope for a placing in the Ipatas Cup nationwide challenge.

East Sepik police boss, Robert Gesa, said despite the state of the island, people need to keep a straight head in this kind of situation.

The PPC has revealed that he has assigned officers to man the Dandan care centre to ensure the flow of peace and law and order from the islanders while they are being looked after.

“Disorderly and unnecessary behavior will not be tolerated by police,” warns Gesa.

He said lives are at stake here and it is important that everyone cooperates in ensuring the smooth flow of movement both at the care centre and around Wewak town.

This comes after a man, alleged to be the manager of the Tang Mow supermarket in Wewak, was seen holding a shot gun in the town public area. 

A picture of the man was posted online – which caused different reactions from the public.

While others were taken aback by this man’s action stating that the relevant authorities should look into the matter, and find out how and why the Asian national can be seen carrying this firearm in broad daylight;

There were others who defended the man’s actions.

After exclusion 24, sitting MP Jim Simatab only leads by 512 votes.

With elimination continuing to find the absolute majority, it was originally only 16, 974 votes but will decrease when ballot papers are exhausted during elimination to find a winner.

The progressive scoreboard is: Jim Simatab (NA) – 6535, Kevin Isifu (PPP) – 6023, Silvester Pokajam (Independent) – 5180, Stanley Muts Samban (PNG National Party) -5032 and Ernie Bautista (THE) - 4780 

Wewak Urban LLG, which was supposed to hold its final day of the two-day polling, got cancelled. The same went for Wewak Rural, Wewak Island, Turubu and Boikin-Dagua.

Wewak Returning Officer, Thaddeus Ulapapik, confirmed to this newsroom that weather was to blame for suspension of polling today.

He said polling will resume depending on the weather.

Ulapapik is confident polling will be completed within the gazetted 14 days.

Meanwhile, the RO appealed to candidates to educate their scrutineers so they do not delay the flow of polling.