THE people of Southern Highlands province are questioning the role of police personnel connected with the liquefied natural gas project there.
It has been observed that these policemen, who travel in distinctive blue Toyota Land Cruisers, do not attend to problems along the road in the Hela and Southern Highlands provinces.
Nipa district administrator Robin Pip said yesterday the people were confused whose interests those policemen were serving.
Pip said if they were enforcing law and order, they should have arrested people drinking alcohol on the Mendi to Nipa and Tari sections of the road.
He said people often drank alcohol and caused a nuisance along the road but these policemen never did anything to arrest them or go after those smuggling and selling alcohol in the two provinces.
Large quantities of alcohol were being smuggled in resulting in people getting drunk and causing many law and order problems every day.
Pip said local policemen based in Nipa, Margarima, Kutubu, Komo, Tari, Koroba and other outstations did not have resources such as vehicles, firearms, manpower and other logistics to carry out their duties.
He said local police found it very difficult to transport those they arrested to the Mendi police station as they did not have vehicles and enough manpower.
Pip said criminal activities along the road could be contained if the police force and national government deployed more personnel to the province.
He said Southern Highlands and Hela were two very important provinces as they generate a lot of revenue for the
country from oil and gas projects.
He said the government must step in and address the ongoing law and order problems in the area.
He added that the deteriorating section of the road from Mendi to Ambua Gap “is another problem that also needs urgent government attention”.
By JAMES APA GUMUNO
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