By CYRIL GARE
THE Government is cracking down on the “sponsors” of Wednesday’s mayhem in Port Moresby where more than 10 lives were reported killed and hundreds of millions of kina worth of properties destroyed.
The 36-hour siege had crippled this bustling metropolis to it’s knees – at least 10 major supermarkets were burnt to ashes while an equal number of other retail shops were looted, sending widespread fear and panic among the city residents.
In Lae the next day, four people were killed and eight others injured after opportunists tried to copy what transpired in Port Moresby when police intervened and contained the situation from escalating.
Similar riot-looting plans were attempted in the towns of Wewak, Madang, Goroka, Kokopo, Kavieng and Bulolo but were nailed by swift police interventions, an effort proudly commended by Prime Minister James Marape of these respective commands. See separate story.
On the backdrop of what transpired on Jan 10, the National Security Advisory Committee (NSAC) had convened and made recommendations to the National Security Council (NSC) which the National Executive Council (NEC) endorsed in its decisions for:
• a 14-day State of Emergency (SoE) in Port Moresby;
• a Defense Force call out. Already 1,000 soldiers were deployed alongside police to restore public confidence and normalcy in the city and to contain any situation that may arise going into the future;
• suspended Police Commissioner, David Manning and appointed deputy commissioner of police operations, Donald Yamasombi as acting CoP and also as SoE Controller;
• suspended Finance, Treasury and Personnel Management Secretaries and appointed three respective deputy Secretaries in their place; and
• ordered a holistic review (investigation) into what transpired on Jan 10.
Chief Secretary, Ivan Pomaleu and Attorney General and Justice Department Secretary, Dr. Eric Kwa were charged to assemble a team of five to start investigations forthwith.
Marape said an administrative review (investigations) will make room for criminal investigations, adding that “we will look at police, Treasury, Finance, and Personnel Management Departments”.
“It’s not good enough that operating agencies do not get to work properly that has caused us this stress.
“I want to inform the country that there is evidence of organised rioting that took place on Wednesday, where that organising came from is what the investigation will ascertain.
“Whilst the police had a genuine cause of concern, there were organised people behind the scene, who were organising the rioting and that started the entire process and we will look into the organisation and where that support came from.
“Everyone who have committed an offence under the country’s law will pay the price for the offences they have committed.
“We want to ensure that this sort of thing does not happen again but more importantly, we secure democracy, we secure the rule of law, we secure good administration of respective public service organisations including our discipline forces so that this sort of thing does not happen again.
“This is not the first-time members of our discipline forces have gone rogue, we have incidents in the past where sporadic incidences of ill-discipline in our police force, in our defence force, in CIS … as well as public services.”
“I want to indicate to our country that enough is enough. If you are a discipline force member, I am mobilising gr.12 students to be trained to take your place if you step out of line.
“There are enough grade 12 graduates who are looking for jobs. There are enough University students in our country looking for jobs. There are enough college graduates in our country who are looking for jobs.
“You’ve sworn your loyalty to the oath. There are ways to deal with grievances. You don’t get out there under a tree and protest. That is not the way discipline force should operate.
“Today I will be charging the SoE Controller Yamasombi to restore order in our police force once and for all.
“We are ready to unbundle over 500 policemen we’ve trained, 9 months into training at Bomana right now. These will be unbundled and placed into areas we feel discipline has caused redundancy, or discipline has created position vacancies.
“I appeal to everyone of you to go back to work, listen to order, respond to directions from your superiors and let’s bring our country back to normalcy. We have enough of rogue elements in our system for too long.
“Don’t think James Marape is going anyway. Yesterday when this place was under almost house arrest I wasn’t running away, I wasn’t showing any panic, I was here every step of the way. And you are dealing with this man, not dealing with anyone.
“I am not going to run away from this place. You want to change government, change it on the floor of Parliament. Not using my people to create lawlessness and recklessness.
“We will be ordering a full investigation into the sponsors of what took place yesterday. At the departmental level, we are making these suspensions and investigations will run its course.
“Everyone who have committed an offence under our country’s laws will pay the price for the offences they’ve created,” Marape said.
