Goroka PX office re-opens

By ZACHERY PER
OPERATIONS at Air Niugini’s Goroka branch are back to normal after services were reportedly disrupted by security guards on Monday morning.
Guards locked out outbound passengers after learning their firm’s contract to provide security at the terminal had been terminated.
Guards and management of Night Owl Security Services (NOSS) locked the gate to Goroka Air Niugini at 7.30am and demanded that branch manager Gideon Samuel explain why the company’s contract had been terminated.
Air Niugini passengers who arrived early to check in for the morning flight could not get in as NOSS management and guards demanded that Samuel show up.
NOSS managing director Winchlee Oibotee told Samuel when they met that there was a conspiracy between him, an airline aviation security manager and a security company from Wabag, Enga, to terminate his company’s contract.
Oibotee said the engaging of an Engan security firm was unacceptable.
He said as an Eastern Highlander and a landowner from Goroka, he felt his firm providing security was part of spin-off benefits for landowners.
Oibotee claimed when the Aviation Security manager flew to Goroka from Port Moresby, he was whisked away to Kefamo village, the home of the Engan security firm known as Maximum Security Services, where negotiations and signing of documents were done in secret.
“For nine years, I have been providing excellent security services at the Air Niugini terminal in Goroka,” he said.
Samuel accepted a protest letter addressed to the aviation security manager with Air Niugini and assured the airline that they would deal with the matter through set procedures and come back to them as soon as possible.