Banz tribesmen return stolen police rifle

THE NKN tribesmen from Banz in Jiwaka have returned a semi-automatic rifle stolen from police six month ago.
Their leaders returned the gun on Saturday at the Mt Hagen police station after a long negotiation.
The people returned the gun after acting eastern end divisional commander Tim Korado visited Namba One Banz early last week and urged the people to return the gun.
Andrew Tants, managing director for the Jiwaka Mission Resort who is from the NKN tribe, talked with his people and took the gun from them and returned it to police.
Tant said that the people took the gun from Kudjip police patrol to show their frustration after policeman Mond Brown was shot dead by a grade 11 student on Aug 13 last year in Banz town.
He said that his NKN tribesmen were not happy because they had lost a young man in a police shooting.
He said that his tribesmen could have sold the rifle but they believed in law and order, and kept the gun.
Tant said that the policeman who had shot Mond wanted to see the law took its own course.
“I want to thank Korada for leaving his high office to come down to the people and convince them to return the gun,” he said.
He said that many attempts made by Jiwaka police in the past five months were unsuccessful.
Korado thanked the people for unconditionally returning the gun back to police.
He appealed to the people of the Nondugl local-level government to do the same and return two guns stolen from police last year.
He said the people and leaders of NKN cooperated with police to return the gun despite a death within the tribe.