Rogue officers have case to answer

ALLOW me to express my disappointment at the Royal PNG Constabulary relating to a incident involving certain police officers during the New Year’s festive celebrations.
On New Year’s Eve, we bought two cartons of beer which we decided to enjoy at Gaire before returning to enjoy the fireworks in the city.
When we approached a roadblock set up at the Bautama roundabout by some scruffy-looking policemen, they insisted on checking the back boot on realising that there was nothing wrong with the vehicle. To our astonishment, these policemen unloaded our beer and placed it at the roadside.
When I tried to ask them why they were doing that, they simply asked me to park my vehicle some 10m away and walk back to receive some explanation for their actions. I did what they asked and one of the policemen, armed with a M16 machine gun, explained that there was a liquor ban in Central so they were going to confiscate the beer.
I became apologetic and explained that we were not aware of the liquor ban in Central and therefore proposed to cancel our Gaire trip and take our beer back into NCD.
However, the armed policeman said since we had initially made the decision to take the beer into Central with the intent to consume it at Gaire, he was not going to release the beer.
When I insisted to know what was going happen to the beer he then referred me to another person in civilian clothing who he introduced as the chief liquor licensing officer from Central and said they were only helping him implement the liquor ban. I then approached the chief liquor licensing officer to allow us to take our beer back to NCD but the guy seemed predetermined not to allow that to happen.
I will have the whole matter investigated as the policemen and the liquor licencing officer spoilt our New Year celebrations by confiscating our beer for no justifiable reason.
For the start, the vehicles used by the police at the road block had private number plates.
I understand there are a few police officers like Met Supt Benjamin Turi who will help in this case so I wish to notify the so-called chief liquor licensing officer from Central to be aware that you now have a real case to deal.

The Judge, Via email