Force need to be fixed first: Governor

BEFORE any law and order issue can be addressed, the police force need to be fixed, says Enga Governor Sir Peter Ipatas.
Sir Peter joined his fellow MPs to debate on the gender-based violence (GBV) report by the Special Parliamentary Committee on GBV on Thursday.
“For about eight years, this is one symptom of law and order problem we have in this country and that is we cannot go around solving problems in a peaceful manner, the Government needs to take on law and order, the people generally think there is no authority,” Sir Peter said.
“People don’t seem to understand that they are safe in their own country.”
While commending the committee for a good job on GBV, Sir Peter reiterated his query about when the country would be serious about the law and order?
“If we don’t manage law and order, we will lose this country and I am tired of talking about law and order,” he said.
“Many people on this floor think that Enga is not manageable on law and order, that is not the case.
“I have many tribal fights in my province.
“That is one of the issues I have in my province.
“You look around the country, as MPs do we feel safe running around?
“If we leaders of this country do not feel safe, what about our small people?
“They don’t have escorts or police, we owe to them to make this country safe.
“It’s not about women and girls only, it’s about everybody.
“Why are we not addressing the call I have made for so many years?
“Law and order is a problem that we can’t fix internally.
“We have to be leaders enough to say, look, there is a problem we cannot manage, we need external help, I have always said to put a strategy in place and put in a stop to all that is happening by bringing in external help.
“If we are changing legislations in this floor to suit our own political agendas all the time and not leaders enough to give immunity to people who can come in and help us, before long you will not be respected as leaders.
“The trend is that people think they can do what they can do because there is no authority.
“Everything hinges on police, police is empowered by constitution to enforce the law.
“If we cannot get one agency to be effective and if we cannot get it to function as it’s supposed to be, don’t run around thinking you are the government, you are a leader running around.
“When the police enforce your laws you can say you are leader or government, when they are not able to enforce the law I don’t think we have authority anymore.”