hanuabada

The return of policing services to the city’s big village was made possible through a week-long awareness by police last week on the production and sale of homebrew in the village.

The Motu Koita reservist and NCD police officers conducted foot patrols in areas where homebrew is sold and gave back positive feedback, reporting a non-sale of alcohol in the village.

NCD Metropolitan Superintendent Silva Sika expressed satisfaction with the results and commended the people of Hanuabada for obeying police orders and working together to make the village safe again.

He was speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday 7^th December, 2021

Rev. Siai on behalf of the host landowner, the United Church of PNG acknowledged first the two governments of PNG and Australia for seeing the need of the people of Motu Koitabu. He thanked the Motu Koita Assembly for its vision.

“I want thank Chairman of Motu-Koitaba for giving priority to the need of our Motu-Koitabu people. A man from this tribe and thank you for that vision. I know it was not easy, it was challenging to realise this vision,” Rev. Siai said.

The unique annual tournament was sponsored by the Oceania Weightlifting Federation (OWF).

Buoyed the gold medal performances of Dika Toua and Morea Baru at the Australian Open International Championships in Australia’s capital Canberra, youngsters poured into the backyard gym of former national coach, Douglas Mea, at Taora for an early morning weigh in ahead of competition.

The Police Superintendent of Operations, Michael Tilae, says while they have yet to officially meet with the community members, his units are now responding to calls from Port Moresby’s big village.

Since 2015, there has been a police ban going into the village following the HB shooting incidents which led to a stand-off with police in the area.

In a meeting with the NCD Metropolitan command, leaders have over the last two months began dialogue to get police presence back into the village.

The NCD Metropolitan police commander, Perou N’Dranou says pending the outcome of a joint consultative meeting that the elders will have with the community, there is a real big need for police to go back into the big village.

To date N’Dranou notes that there are reports of major drug, homebrew and stolen vehicle activities in the village, a situation that he says has gotten out of hand since the ‘2015 police pull out’.

Commander Michael Tilae warned however that the villagers have two options: To either lift the ban or allow for the police to come in and carry out community policing.

Tilae says the forum they hold needs to emphasise that police will not come in light-handed.

He said that the people need to take responsibility but also note that the police will need to carry out their duties diligently.

Town police station commander, Ben Levi says that his personnel have to date caught numerous PMV busses smuggling the illegal alcohol out of the Hanuabada area.

He says that the festive period has seen more offenders try to take homebrew out of the village to run sales in other communities.

PSC Levi says that he is working on dialogue with leaders at the big village to deal with this issue which leads to numerous law and order situations around the community.

Villagers have blocked off the main road.

This comes after a local was served an eviction by an unmarked white 10 seater with police men dressed in police task force uniform.

Landowner and resident for 46 years, Gari Garia told Loop PNG that the matter was still in court adding that this came as a surprise to him and his family.

Village elders confirmed also that they had no knowledge of the matter.

They said it is their understanding that any matter regarding land issues, they should be consulted.

Ali said they had managed to get information from witnesses who were present during the incident that implicated some police officers.

“We’ve also interviewed some of the officers who were believed to be involved in the incident.”

Ali says other than that, they are still trying to assess the information they have collected to confirm the identities of the policemen.

He adds that although it is easier to identify people, the hardest part of it is gathering evidence which will be able to withstand judicial scrutiny when tested in court.

These two sides of Hanuabada have been united in the face of tragedy.