Lawyer: Witness statements not consistent

THE defence lawyer for a policeman facing murder charge has asked a Waigani committal court to dismiss the case due to inconsistency in the witness statements on Friday.
David Dotaona told the court that Komeng Gubag, 34, from Wakon village, Sumkar in Madang, was charged with two counts of murder, but, there was no evidence provided in the witness statement that he used a pistol to shoot the two deceased.
Police prosecutor Peter Samghy argued that there was sufficient evidence to proceed a prima facie case at the National Court.
Samghy said most of the witnesses were street vendors at Garden Hills settlement and they saw Gubag holding a pistol on that day when the incident happened.
“He was holding onto a pistol even he was suspended from his job,” a witness said in his statement.
Dotaona in response to the police prosecutor told the court that most of the witness statements did not clearly state that they saw Gubag using a pistol to shoot and kill two people.
He said police did a rush job by filing the witness statements four days after the incident happened and it was evident from the inconsistency with the timing of events.
“The police investigation was done by the Internal Investigation Unit (IIU) and not the Crimes Investigations Division (CID) as it should be,” he told the court.
Dotaona said that the case should be dismissed at the committal court as it would be a waste of time proceeding it to the National Court only to be acquitted due to insufficient evidence provided by police.
“If the court wants this case to be tried in the National Court then the police should carry out more investigations and provide enough evidence,” he said.
Committal court Magistrate Danny Wakikura said he had noted all the arguments from both the police prosecutor and the defence lawyer and adjourned the case to July 5 for ruling.
Police alleged that on Oct 23, 2021, between 7pm and 8pm, Gubag was armed with a pistol and was demolishing and chasing market vendors at Garden Hills in Port Moresby over the argument of a stolen boom box.
It was alleged that Gubag fired several shots which resulted in two lives lost.