By JAMES KILA
A POLICE officer in charge of a rural police station in Eastern Highlands province took on single-handedly a group of armed suspects at a roadblock in Okapa, and shot dead two of them.
The attempt of the suspects was thwarted by acting Okapa station commander Ray Okoro last week along the recently upgraded Okapa road.
The road is relied on by farmers in the coffee-rich electorate and the death of the two suspects served as a warning to criminals wanting to prey on innocent people who use the road.
There were fears among the people of Okapa that criminals from other parts of the province were infiltrating the area to prey on farmers and coffee buyers along the recently upgraded road.
Mr Okoro shot and killed the two criminals near Tarabo along the Okapa road recently.
According to Mr Okoro, the two men, along with five others, were armed with high powered firearms including M16 and AK 47 and were trying to stop a PMV from Goroka.
Mr Okoro, who was accompanying the Member for Okapa Bonny Oveyara, had passed the scene where the suspects were planning to carrying out the hold-up.
A woman, who was returning from the garden, stopped them and warned them of criminals in the area.
Mr Okoro got off his vehicle and caught a ride in a PMV heading to Goroka and confronted the armed men at the roadblock.
He shot and killed one man, while the others fled into the bushes.
Mr Okoro said he pursued the men and, in an exchange of gunfire, shot and killed the second.
Then, he personally brought the bodies of the two to the Goroka General Hospital.
He said what used to be a bad road along Kuru Mountain to Tarabo and Okapa station was currently undergoing major maintenance and vehicles such as PMV buses would be using it to shuttle people.
However, he warned that anybody who wished to cause disturbances such as staging armed-hold-ups and disturbing the travelling public would be risking his own life.
Mr Oveyara during the launching of the Tarabo-Okapa road recently also called on the communities living along the road to keep their eyes open and report any incidence.
He said Okapa people were peace-loving and wanted to go about with their coffee business.
“But there are people wanting to tarnish the good name of the Okapa people by robbing and disturbing peace along the road,” he added.