Funding given for new Wabag lock-up

A NEW cell will be built for Wabag police following an allocation from Wabag MP and Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Abal.
Wabag district administrator Elias Awarin presented a K100,000 cheque to acting provincial police commander Chief Insp Martin Lakari on behalf of Mr Abal on Monday.
Chief Insp Lakari said the current police building could not be renovated because it was too old.
“The building needed to be torn down a new one constructed,” he said, adding that the cheque would be given to the provincial Works department, but it was not enough.
“We need well more than K1 million for a new police building. We need bigger and stronger cells to keep remandees.”
Chief Insp Lakari said with the liquefied natural gas project coming up in neighbouring Southern Highlands, the influx of people passing through Wabag to get to Mendi or Margarima would increase.
“This is expected to pose law and order problems. We need to be prepared,” he said.
The Wabag police cell, built during the pre-independence period, was condemned by the provincial Health authorities in 2006.
The Wabag National Court last month also declared that the cell was not good enough to keep detainees or prisoners.
Keeping them there would breach the basic rights of those held in lawful custody.
Early this month, resident judge Justice Graham Ellis, with his court staff, cleaned the condemned cell.