With the concerns being raised all over the country with the escalating law and order issues, opposition leader Douglas Tomuriesa has called on Prime Minister and the responsible authorities to address the root causes of those issues.
Tomuriesa said if the government is unable to address the issues effectively, they could always consider bringing in bilateral partners to help combating these issues.
In a media conference yesterday, the opposition leader said these law-and-order issues need to be dealt with immediately.
“I want to emphasize on the issue of law and order in the highlands has really been a great concern for me but the reason why I am calling the media conference today is the respect of state institutes and I’m here talking about our police officers. In the recent past we have seen countless of our police men and women being abused to the extent where they have been killed.” Tomuriesa.
He calls on the authorities in responsible to come up with a workable plan to sort out this issue.
“Of law and order in our country are we going to go out and celebrate independence? knowing behind us there is an issue that needs to be controlled, needs to be addressed and so on behalf of the families who have lost loved ones in the highlands the public servants who cannot go to work because they live in fear everyday I’m calling upon the prime minister, the minister for police, minister for Defence, the police commissioner and the hierarchies of these agencies to seriously look into this and come up with a workable plan to solve it.” Tomuriesa said.
He said if this cannot be there must be a bipartisan approach towards those issues.
“I’d you cannot sort it out I’ve been talking to the government in the parliament I will call upon the government again that there must be a bipartisan approach to the law-and-order issue in the country, if you cannot handle it allow others to come in and work with you to sort it out, we cannot allow Papua New Guineans to be murdered at will,” the leader of opposition said.
He said people cannot live in fear in this nation anymore, something needs to be done.
“I am so concerned and police commissioner and police minister must take this concern, you cannot continue to send our service men and women into the highlands unprotected, you cannot continue to send them up there without enough fire power or enough men power and I’m calling upon the prime minister seriously to consider bringing in police assistance, the governor for Enga continuously calls for partnership,” he said.
Tomuriesa is calling on the authorities to refrain from sending security forces into the highlands without adequate protection and getting them killed on the line of duty like what had happened recently.
