Court proceedings cancelled after bomb scare at Waigani

By ZEDAIAH KANAU
THE Waigani Committal Court received a scare yesterday after word of remandees carrying a bomb into the premises caused the day’s proceedings to be cancelled.
The police bomb squad and dog unit were called in to handle the situation before normalcy was restored.
According to sources, there was a call from the Correctional Services to the Magisterial services headquarters warning them about three remandees carrying a bomb in a bag when coming to the committal court for their cases.
The magistrate headquarters then advised the Waigani Committal Court registry about the bomb threat.
Police were then contacted about the threat.
After the 47 remandees (both from Central and the National Capital District) were transported to the committal court, they were searched by police.
The committal court premises was also searched by the bomb squad and dog unit who later found no evidence of a bomb.
Police Prosecutor Chief Sgt Polon Koniu said they had not received a threat of this kind before, and added that Correctional Services officers at Bomana needed to thoroughly check remandees for weapons and other offensive or unauthorised items before sending them to the Waigani complex.
“If the call is coming from CS, from remandees, then it seems that people are allowed to bring their phones in there and they’re calling from the main compound to Bomana to the magisterial services headquarters,” Chief Sgt Koniu said.
All matters listed for yesterday were adjourned to the registry for new hearing dates. Acting NCD Met Supt Nelson Chanei said police responded quickly and cordoned off the court premises before bringing in a Police sniffer dog specifically trained to locate explosives.
He said the K9 unit swept the entire court house building but found no trace of explosives.
Met Supt Chanei also said the matter was now under police investigations.