Justice done for community leaders

TWENTY-four community leaders from the Ahi LLG in Lae were presented with certificates in community restorative justice leadership training at the Bumbu Police Barracks last week.
This leadership skills programme is a pilot project initiated by one of the leaders, Jacket Tu’u who is the chairman of the Ahi community restorative justice committee.
The one-week course was aimed at providing leaders with necessary skills to effectively assist police in enforcing law and order in their communities.
The training was coordinated and facilitated by Snr Const John Watah and Chief Sgt Paul Bai from the Momase Regional Police Training Centre. 
Mr Bai, the acting regional training officer for Momase said some of the topics that the participants took included conflict management, the Constitution, group networking, communication skills, court procedures, arrest act and citizen power of arrest.
He said the idea was to empower the leaders to successfully implement their leadership roles and responsibilities in controlling and ensuring peace in their respective communities.
The training would assist them in addressing less serious cases, Mr Bai said.
He said if the implementation of the project was successful, there were plans to set up small office facilities in the communities and extending the programme to other LLGs in the province.
“The leaders would be more or less the eyes and ears of the police in the community,” he said.
At the closing ceremony last Friday, metropolitan commander Supt Nema Mondiai commended the leaders for their dedication and concern in representing their communities.