Committal court allows officers to find lawyer

The National National

A SENIOR police officer and another female officer accused of robbing goods and money from two trade stores have been given time by a court to find a lawyer.
Chief Sgt Ray Mition, 59, from Gunamur village, Gazelle, East New Britain and co-accused Lorrain Mark, 27, from Geneboku village, Talasea, West New Britain, of Saraga police station, Port Moresby, appeared before the Committal Court at Waigani.
Both were charged with armed robbery.
On May 20, between 4pm and 5pm at Saraga Kopiago Block in 6-Mile, Mition and Mark in the company of other police officers allegedly went to stop a commotion between Albert Kekelo and four drunk men but they took goods and money from Kekelo’s store and Ben Farakua’s store totalling K17,059.37 using force and guns after the drunkards allegedly smashed the windscreen of the police vehicle.
Earlier officers with supervisor Sgt Mition were attending to a complaint filed by Kekelo’s wife, Dala Albert, when they were allegedly attacked by drunkards, resulting in the smashed windscreen of their police car.
Mition blamed Kekelo and his wife for the damages done to the police vehicle and demanded a compensation payment of K5,000 to be met by Kekelo and the Saraga Kopiago Block community by Friday.
He said if the demand was not met they would burn all the houses at Kopiago Block.
Mition then used the police radio to call for police back up, who arrived later at the scene.
Mark along with other officers, who are yet to be arrested and charged, allegedly entered Kekelo’s premises without a search warranted and took a number of items in the store as well as a safe containing cash.
Kekelo said the total value of the goods including the cash was K11, 800.00.
The officers then broke and entered Farakua’s store and stole more money.
Kekelo reported the matter to the Police’s Internal Affairs Directorate in Koki.
Police prosecutor Sgt Christian Iga told the court before Magistrate Ernest Wilmot that Mition and Mark were recently served police files and needed time to prepare their arguments.
Wilmot adjourned the matter to Oct 14 to give them enough time to find a lawyer to prepare their submission and extended their court bail of K500 each.