Buses strike over driver’s alleged assault

POLICE in Lae have dismissed a rumour circulating in public since Tuesday afternoon and yesterday that a bus driver had died after an incident allegedly involving police.
“There was an allegation that police officers beat up a driver,” Lae metro commander Chief Superintendent Chris Kunyanban said.
“Actually, a bus bumped into a police vehicle and the police reacted by assaulting the driver and may have also damaged the bus.”
Kunyanban said the rumour that the driver had died was not true. “I had interviewed the driver and the owner of the PMV bus concerned and they agreed that the case would be investigated by the internal investigation unit,” he said.
Kunyanban said the investigation would establish who was at fault and if the officers had a case to answer.
During the strike that started late on Tuesday, all PMV buses in Lae were pulled off the roads in protest over a rumour that a driver had been badly beaten by police and had died.
Chief Supt Kunyanban said apart from the driver and the PMV bus concerned, other PMV drivers misunderstood what police and the concerned driver and owner came up with since Tuesday afternoon.
“No-one died as the rumour claims,” he said.