by Bethanie Harriman – EM TV News, Lae
Remote Lagai villagers kept the body of a youth for three days, after they suspected that he was murdered.
Lagai village in the local level government of the Menyamya District sits between mountains that cut the people off from service delivery.
It takes at least three days for health workers and policemen to get to this area when there is a problem. Implementing law and order in isolated villages in the district is difficult.
With Menyamya’s five-month-old drought hitting the water supply and food crops, there are still persistent law and order problems.
On Sunday, relatives were grieving over the body of a man they claimed to have been murdered.
Menyamya authorities had to be flown into the village by chopper to inspect the dead body of the youth.
The visit by authorities that included Menyamya MP, Benjamin Philip, was initially to speak to the Lagai people of the impacts of the drought, but they used the opportunity to see the body and dispel rumors of the murder.
The relatives had the body with them when Menyamya Health Extension Officer, Samson Sakaneh, and rural police officer flew in and did the inspection.
Although proper forensics test can’t be done in places like Lagai, police say, a falling tree could have killed the youth, because he was found in the forest near trees that had recently been cut down.
The work done by police in Lagai was crucial, because it stopped more bloodshed that could have happened in retaliation tribal fights.
