ESP needs access to legal and judicial services

I WOULD like to thank Public Solicitor Frazer Pitpit for bringing the public solicitor’s office to Wewak, East Sepik.
It is a move in the right direction as it will allow the people of East and West Sepik to access legal servi­ces.
As a lawyer who is involved in criminal defence litigation, I have long decried the lack of access to legal and judicial services in the province.
Until recently, there was no public solicitor’s presence, no prosecutors and irregular conduct of National Court circuits in Wewak due to the fact that there is no resident judge there.
This is despite the allocation of more than K18 million some years back for the construction of a court complex next to the provincial treasury at Kreer Heights.
Bushes have reclaimed the site after a ground-breaking ceremony some years ago.
Someone, perhaps the governor, should explain what is happening to this project.
The governor has promised us a resident judge.
Provinces like West New Britain, Enga, Southern Highlands and recently Chimbu have been allocated resident judges.
Why not East Sepik?
From the last circuit in October, albeit a short one lasting only a week, there remains in excess of 300 people on remand awaiting National Court trials in Wewak and the number is increasing every day.
The average remand period is more than three years, despite the fact that detainees are innocent until proven guilty.
They cannot apply for bail as there are no judges in Wewak.
Even if we were to have a resident judge, my conservative estimate is we will need more than two years to clear the backlog of cases.
For most of these detainees, by the time their cases reached the court, they would have served out their term if found guilty.
This is not only absurd but a blatant breach of our people’s constitutional rights as they have been denied a fair hearing within a reasonable time.
I am representing several people who have escaped from Boram due to lengthy delays in their cases.
While I acknowledge that their action was wrong, I really cannot blame them under the present oppressive system.
I call on the responsible autho­rities, especially Governor Peter Wararu, to take a proactive action to remedy this situation.
Like the good governor himself said the time for affirmative action is “nau yet nau yet”.

Frederick Lunge
Ambukanjai village, Yangoru