Gulf and Mekeo people bury hatchet

ROAD TRAVEL along the country’s highways can be free from armed hold-ups if leaders both at the national and village level work together to ensure there is effective implementation of law and order along highway villages.
Central province police commander Aquila Tokanini said this yesterday when commending the Gulf and Mekeo people who on Saturday gathered at Malalaua station for a peaceful reconciliation ceremony where a petition for lasting peace along the highway was exchanged between the two groups.
The occasion followed by demands raised last week by angry people from Gulf after a Hiritano Highway PMV driver from Kukipi village, Gulf, was shot and died instantly when he was trying to avoid an armed hold-up between Inauabui and Eboa villages in Mekeo over a week ago.
“The gathering by Mekeo and Gulf people on Saturday was peaceful and the leaders from both villages are
working closely with the police to apprehend the suspects,” Central province police commander Tokanini said yesterday.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Gulf people yesterday said that included in the petition last Saturday was for a surrendering of firearms and the recent suspects from villages, a compensation package included K175,000 and 400 pigs to end years of attacks on commuters.
The petition gives a 14 day notice for compliance as of last Saturday.