Five soldiers in police custody

The National Main Stories

FIVE PNG Defence Force soldiers have been detained in the Kiunga police station for allegedly damaging a roadside market in North Fly, Western, acting border commander Supt Philip Welia says.
Also, a man in South Fly district allegedly smashed a soldiers’ firearm when soldiers attempted to arrest him.
Supt Welia said some soldiers deployed for border operations and based at the Kiunga military outpost allegedly damaged a market and harassed mothers who were selling goods there.
“We don’t know what caused the soldiers to go on the rampage at the market on Tuesday at about 8pm.
“Investigation are now underway. For now, only five soldiers have been arrested with the help of senior PNGDF officers and detained at the Kiunga police station,” Supt Welia said.
“But from initial reports, some soldiers were allegedly drunk and went to the Sare Corner Market in two vehicles and attacked the people. The people then retaliated and fought with the soldiers, forcing them to return to the barracks.
“(We) will provide full details tomorrow when I get a full report from the Kiunga police station commander Snr Insp Anthony Toroipo.”
Meanwhile, a man remains at large after allegedly smashing a firearm at a PNG Defence Force soldier at Morehead Station when soldiers attempted to arrest him for destroying properties, acting South Fly Commander Snr Insp Ewai Segi said.
“The man was drunk and destroyed properties at the Pawajam Guest House and also injured a man last Sunday.”

9 comments

  • Poorly mental disorder and drunkards’ soldiers must be discharge from the force and be in the village.

  • Undisciplined as ever. When will the members of disciplined forces, especially police and the military act and behave the way we expect them to? We have this mental disorder where those who carry firearms think they can do whatever they like. Now that is pure childish, primitive and selfish in a way. Only the coward picks on the weak and the helpless!

  • PNGDF lacks discipline. Unlike the force before independence, when you are in either RPNGC uniform or military uniform, you are representing the Queen of England. It is very very shameful to see & hear the PNGDF in uniform misbehave in the public inwhich the very citizen whom they have taken an oath to serve.

  • The Government should not suppress this PNGDF drunkard activities. All citizens should be armed to defend themselves at least. All house holds should acquire a weapon of their choice and be strictly guided by arms user procedure where the arm is only produced to deter an assault by arm trotting thug or ill disciplined military or police personnel.
    Remember PNGDF lost the war in Bougainville even when BRA was not an entirely militarily trained outfit but they still defended Bougainville. If they did not withstand BRA onslaught how do we expect this poorly disciplined soldiers to protect the country against a well trained military outfit eg Indonesia. Garbage at its worse.

  • The so called PNG police force and PNGDF are the only two government forces that are known to be undisciplined forces because of the few opportunists in the forces. The name “undisciplined forces” best substitute their original name, “Discipline Forces” because of their common practice of misbehaving in the public places by handful of them.
    One of the reasons is because of the poor recruitment programs. Those officers involved in causing such public non-sense are mostly those who recruited from drop-outs Gr. 10 &12. It is too early to eat the kaukau (sweet potatoes) before its being cooked. We can’t eat the raw kaukau (sweet potatoes) until its being properly cooked. So recruiting drop-outs Gr 10- & 12 in these discipline forces is like you are eating raw kaukau. It is not just a security firm where you will have to recruit drop-outs Gr. 10 & 12 who are still lack in knowledge and capability. Its a discipline forces and we have to be very mindful.
    It would be proper if government get their forces, both Police and Defence out from the colleges and universities and train them for six months at their respective colleges. Only then we will have a officers with decent mind and proper understanding.

  • I hate of hearing Police & Army bridging the Laws.
    Please just take batch out of them and release them to where they come from.

    Stupid & Nonsense Officers.

  • Over to you Brigadier General, too much corruption in recruitment process. When you have too much of one region in the army or police , their same mind set couple with their lack of intellectual savi of what’s right or wrong gives you that result. Change the Army Hierarchy..

  • Rony Naigu, you are too narrow minded, curt, emotional and too shallow in your comment.

    As an ex-member of once highly disciplined force of the early 80s and 90s, I am saddened by the actions of the current faction of members. Nevertheless, Commander Brigadier General Gilbert Toropo with committed and highly disciplined soldiers will still perform their constitutional duties. In a nut case, get rid of those corrupt, undisciplined and bad ones from the good ones and revisit recruitment structure and do changes to build better discipline PNGDF going forward.

    Ex sapper

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