Fitting farewell for speedway murder victim

By GABRIEL LAHOC
“A BRAVE son who protected others and lost his life to criminals on October 22 at Speedway, Lae,” was the inscription on a portrait of speedway murder victim, Rex Wama, 19.
That was displayed for all to see in a moving funeral service last Friday at the home of Ron Kingal, a short distance from where Wama was stabbed to death by three men the previous weekend.
Wama’s Kunyanga tribesmen from Baiyer, Western Highlands, local Kamkumungs, his colleagues from Lae Biscuit Company and community members from Speedway on Independence Drive in Lae bade him farewell, before his casket was transported up the highway to his home province by family members.
The grieving friends heaped praises on the late Wama.
Despite the absence of city authorities and leaders who were invited by the family, community leaders who spoke at the ceremony saw his death as a reflection of a weakening leadership in the city in the wake of growing lawlessness.
It was revealed that Wama, who pursued and confronted the thugs who robbed a colleague and his wife of their shopping bag, was stabbed on the left rib with the knife piercing his heart and lungs, killing him on the spot.
Kingal, the Lae Biscuit Company’s warehouse manager and Wama’s boss, described the late Wama as a hard worker “who is the first on the job and the last worker to leave”.
“He loves little children many of whom are now present and crying over his casket.
“I just realised the huge potential Wama had after he died protecting the lives of others, protecting lives is reward-able in heaven,” Kingal said.
Wama’s councillor in the Baiyer constituency, Jim Lokae said Wama’s notorious Kunyangan tribesmen adhered to their tribal chief and prominent lawyer Paul Paraka by not taking the law into their own hands and retaliating.
“Despite the pain in us, we believe that God will raise another in the place of Rex Wama,” he said.
Three suspects are now in police custody.
The Limki community, where the three suspects live, is expected to contribute financially for Wama’s compensation.