Leader dies after dawn abduction

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Mondy 14th November 2011

A NAWAEB councillor and a leader of the uprising in Lae is dead allegedly killed by people  posing as police officers.
Councillor Wanjor Bokam was last seen being taken in a vehicle at about 1am last Thursday from his house at Poa­hom, 3km from the city at Bumayong by men in police uniform.
Bokam, about 35, was from Baindoang, the same village as Governor Luther Wenge, at the foot of the rugged Sarawaged ranges.
Settlers from Malahang said they found his body last Thursday afternoon in the Busu River with deep cuts believed to have been inflicted by a knife or bayonet.
Bokam was the councillor for Ward 13, whose constituency covers Poahom and the Gobari RSL settlement, of the Ahi LLG in the Nawaeb district.
Sources said he was asleep when the alleged police officers surrounded his house and tried to wake him up.
When they could not wake Bokam, they woke up a neighbour, a wantok, to wake him up.
They said they told him that there was an urgent meeting and the “police boss” wanted him to attend.
“So seeing that the meeting was a formal one, he dressed up in his best and went with them,” a neighbour said.
Councillor Bokam’s wife pleaded with the police to allow her to accompany her husband to the meeting but she was refused.
Another neighbour said he talked to Bokam on Wednesday morning when he was on his way to the Ahi LLG office at Malahang.
He said Bokam was nursing his left arm which was in a sling, after being shot by police on Saturday morning at Malahang.
His killing renewed tension and anxiety on Friday as e-mail and text messages were sent out in a ghost-to-ghost hook-up.
The messages warned all Morobeans to look out for two vehicles.
Police sources said they had impounded a vehicle but would not elaborate.