By ELIAS LARI
THE Titi tribesmen in Wabag Enga province, compensated two prisoners on parole with K10,000 cash, 20 pigs and a goat last Saturday in Mt Hagen City.
They were convicted for the murder of a Sepik man at 8 Mile in Port Moresby in 1998 but were released on parole in 2006 after serving their sentence of nine years and seven months by the Waigani National Court on March 3, 1998.
The Titi tribesmen claim the two men - Atima Lina Kepaija from Tari, Southern Highlands and Leo Iki from Surunki, Enga- were wrongly detained by the police for the murder of a Sepik man, whom they killed in retaliation after a Sepik man shot dead a storekeeper from Titi village in 1996 during a failed robbery on a trade store.
The incident happened in March 1996 when a group of criminals entered a trade store owned by a man from Titi and asked for K20 while pointing a gun at the storekeeper.
The storekeeper raised the alarm and his tribesmen nearby chased the criminals who, while escaping, shot the storekeeper and killing instantly.
The Titi tribesmen then retaliated and killed three people from Sepik and burnt their bodies and also destroyed other properties owned by the Sepiks.
Western Highlands provincial peace and good order committee chairman Simon Apa said the Titi tribesmen compensated them because they know that they (Atima and Leo) were innocent and were not involved in the killings and destruction of properties.
He said the people of Enga have declared them innocent but cannot overrule the court’s decision and urged the relatives of the two men to respect the court.
Meanwhile, Thomas Potape, a community leader from Tari, said they wasted almost all of their resources to have these two convicts released completely from prison.