THE National Office for Child and Family Services (NOCFS) is working with police to ensure the suspect involved in abusing a girl in Porgera, Enga Province, is arrested and charged for child abuse.
NOCFS Chief Executive Officer Mr Jerry Wap said this today after a video went viral on social media platforms over the weekend showing a girl, about four-years-old, being threatened by an unidentified man, who had filmed the child and forced her to pack her clothes and leave the house she was residing in.
Mr Wap strongly condemned the incident saying no child in Papua New Guinea should be allowed to go through such situation.
“When I was notified of the video over the weekend, I had immediately written to the Police Commissioner, the Enga Provincial Police Commander and the Police Station Commander for Porgera, expressing my concern over the incident and called for the immediate arrest of the offenders,” Mr Wap said.
“As the office that is mandated to protect the rights and interests of PNG children, we have also laid a formal complaint with the Waigani Police regarding the incident,” he said.
“Our Child Protection Officer in Porgera is also working with police to ensure the child is assessed and protected from further abuse and harm,” Mr Wap said.
Mr Wap explained that what happened in the video is unlawful and totally contradicts the Lukautim Pikinini Act (2015), the primary law that protects children in the country and which the NOCFS administers.
He said the child in the video has been verbally, emotionally and psychologically abused by the suspect.
“No child in the country should endure this kind of treatment because it is not only against the law but it will also affect their immediate and long-term health and physical, emotional and psychological development,” Mr Wap said.
“As the office in charge of the welfare and well-being of PNG children, we will not sit idly and allow this kind of abuse to take place in our homes, communities and society,” he said.
Mr Wap said despite NOCFS’s limited resources and manpower, abuses reported to the office or captured on social media platforms will be swiftly investigated with the help of its partners and perpetrators implicated will be dealt with by law.