Leader wants respect for village courts

By NICHOLAS SIREO
VILLAGE courts should be respected as they are the lowest level of the magistracy in the country, says former law and order chairman in Lae Khay Takiseng.
He made this comment after several village court sessions at Omili police station were disrupted by noises from peace mediators happening at the same time.
“Every Sunday, people turn up at Omili for village court sessions while police mediations were going on. Many times the village court sessions were being disturbed by the noise from police mediations,” Takiseng said.
He described the village court system as important which many people seemed to overlook.
“People turn up at the police mediation and argue with each other and cause disturbances to village court officials.
“The village court sessions and mediations should be held on different dates to avoid such disturbances.
Takiseng called on the police hierarchy in Lae to consider his plea and set police mediations on other dates so that village court sessions could be held without any interference.
“Village courts are as important as other courts but they solve issues at a village level.
Many people don’t understand this and treat village courts as an inferior court system,” he said.