By GABRIEL FITO
All police operations in East Sepik province have been thrown into chaos as the ongoing fuel shortage finally stalled the entire police operations in the province this week.
The problem had sparked a verbal confrontation between the public and police outside the Wewak police station after police could not move the detainees at the police lock-up to the district court houses for their cases yesterday morning.
A very frustrated ward member from Wewak Local told The National that the allege offenders included some of his villagers who had been living in the cell since Jan 31.
John Jehando, who expressed shock and disappointment over the police inability to move the allege offenders to court, said something must be done immediately as these offenders cannot live there for a longer period.
He also alleged that the condition of the cell was not fit for human habitation and provincial health authorities should inspect the facility and decide on its fate.
Acting provincial police commander Daniel Kayver could not be reached for comments yesterday. However, a police spokesman confirmed that all police vehicles had been grounded due to fuel shortage.
He said fuel had been an ongoing problem for police in East Sepik since last year, however, they managed to survive on the left-over from the National Election until this week when they were forced off the road.
He said due to the problem, suspects who were being locked up at the police cell since last week were still there as there was no vehicle to transport them to the district court houses for their cases.
He said even police personnel are now catching PMVs to and from work while a few policemen are paying for fuel out from their own pocket just to keep one or two police vehicles on the road to assure the public of police presence.
He added that due to the problem, people are often advised “to refuel police vehicle if they wanted police to attend to their complaints”.
The policeman said they have raised the concern with the divisional headquarters in Lae which had sympathised with them and assured them that they would seek help from the Police headquarters in Port Moresby.