Gulf Province police was presented with two vehicles to replace its aging fleet to assist with policing in the province.
The vehicles was handed over to the Gulf Provincial Police Commander, Chief Inspector Jeffery Lemb at the Southern Divisional Command headquarter in Port Moresby, recently.
Director Media, Chief Superintendent Dominic Kakas handed over the keys to the two vehicles on behalf of Police Commissioner, David Manning.
Mr Kakas said the vehicles were purchased under the Kina-for-Kina scheme initiated by Commissioner Manning to replace the aging police fleet of vehicles nationwide. He said the police in Gulf have not been given new vehicles for a long time so the Police Commissioner had arranged for the new fleet.
Under the kina-for-kina scheme, Commissioner Manning wanted to alleviate the logistical problems for police nationwide, so the constabulary entered into the arrangements with various open and regional members, whereby every kina they put in the constabulary reciprocated and purchased vehicles for their provinces and electorates.
Similar arrangements were done for Namatanai, Madang and the Oro province.
He said for the Gulf Province the Constabulary is still waiting for the Governor or one of the MPs to participate in the scheme.
“Gulf has a serious mobility issue so the Commissioner made these allocations and whatever assistance that comes later from the leaders will ensure the province will have more vehicles,” Mr Kakas said.
He said the vehicles are asserts for the constabulary and must be looked after. He told the PPC to look after the vehicles so that they will last longer to be used for policing in the province.
Chief Inspector Jeffery Lemb thanked Commissioner Manning for helping Gulf Police with the two new police vehicles in time for their pre-election operations.
He said the vehicles would help them carry out their pre-election operations effectively to prepare for the 2022 National General Election in the province.
Meanwhile, a hand-over-take-over parade is scheduled to take place tomorrow in Kerema, Gulf Province, where outgoing PPC Chief Inspector Maria Johns will hand over the command to Mr Lemb.
Gulf police is set to launch the pre-election security operations for the province on April 20.