40-year veteran police officer saves the day

By REBECCA KUKU
MUM Martha Kerugla found herself in a rather desperate situation yesterday morning trying to get her two children to school.
She was caught in a traffic jam in rush hour in the middle of busy Port Moresby and it was raining heavily.
It was a bad start to the day for Kerugla, 34. It was to be her four-year-old daughter’s first day at school.
“You can just imagine all the excitement. Little Miss Four was excited for school and woke the whole family up at 5am just to get ready for school,” she said.
Kerugla said traffic lights at Waigani had gone off “and I just lost hope”.
They were in the queue for nearly an hour when she noticed traffic starting to move again.
“At first, I thought the lights had come back on,” she said.
“Then a few cars back from the traffic lights, I saw him in his blue police uniform with no raincoat. He just stood there in the rain, in the cold and was directing, controlling traffic.
“I was so grateful and it made me realise that despite all the negativity you read about police officers in the media, there are a few who are good and care for the people.
“That one act of goodness gave me hope as I’m sure it also touched many other people who drove through the traffic lights at Waigani yesterday morning.”
Kerugla did not know the police officer’s name and suspected he could be from the Waigani police station.
She wanted to thank him on behalf of all the people who drove through Waigani traffic lights yesterday.
But when The National contacted Waigani police station commander Inspector Jerry Yawa, he said the officer was not from the station.
“He is actually Chief Sergeant Poiou from the Gordon police barracks office,” he said.
“He was driving through and saw that the traffic lights had gone off. So he stood in the rain and directed traffic.”
Chief Sergeant Poiuo Purai told The National that despite the heavy rain, he decided to go down and direct traffic at Waigani because there was a big traffic jam.
He knew it was the first day of school and students and parents were rushing to register their children.
“It’s not the first time. I’ve been in the service for 40 years now,” he said.
“When I joined, there were no traffic lights and as young officers, we would stand (at the intersections) and control traffic.”