Michael Tilae

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.

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.

The items were recovered during a police raid at the village over the weekend.

NCD superintendent operations, Michael Tilae, said dinghies were used for the crimes within the space of a month in different areas, including the Napanapa refinery and AES near Roku village. 

Reports were received of thefts being allegedly conducted by men from Tatana however, a raid was not conducted until a warrant of search was obtained last week.

Furthermore, a search could not be conducted due to Tatana being one of the no-go zones for police.

A young woman sustained a broken jaw with bullets in her right cheek and shattered teeth after being attacked in a parking lot following an attempted carjacking on Friday.

The former lands officer, on the hand, was shot just outside his home as per reports from Homicide.

This comes after the arrest of seven officers and an additional two who were arrested over the weekend.

The seven police personnel are now being processed for criminal negligence in a murder case that occurred three weeks ago while the other two have been arrested and charged.

One of the officers was arrested by the internal affairs unit for illegally using an impounded vehicle for two days while the other was arrested for assault in public.

In a brief yesterday, Commander Michael Tilae said they only have correspondence and documents going into the office.

Tilae was responding to queries raised by this newsroom on the status of allegations and questioning that were supposedly set to be carried out on the national statistician regarding misappropriation of funds amounting to more than K200 million.