Man pleads for bail in court

By BARBARA DERUAGE
A MAN accused of armed robbery of a store pleaded for bail in the Waigani Committal Court because he was a family man and a Christian and denied taking part in the offence.
Magistrate Cosmas Bidar told Tau Gumu, 40, from Gunugau village, Kwikila, Central, that the committal court did not have power to grant bail for the alleged offence and he needed to make an application through a lawyer to the National Court.
Bidar also told him to tell his side of the story to police officers when a record of interview was conducted.
Gumu was alleged to have helped six others, still at large, with insider information leading to the robbery of Daisy Mini Mart at Okari Street, Boroko, in Port Moresby where a total of K34,000 in cash was taken by the robbers who allegedly used dangerous weapons and violence.
At the time Gumu was employed as a driver of Daisy Mini Mart and had worked for five months.
He was alleged to be the only person who knew the banking runs of the company.
On Sept 17, at 9.43am, Gumu arrived with the manager Sequim Lin in a grey Nissan X-Trail station wagon to collect the independence anniversary weekend’s takings at the shop to be deposited at a bank.
After parking the vehicle in front of the shop, Gumu allegedly went out of the vehicle, entered Sengco Niumec Ltd’s main gate and made a phone call to his accomplices to alert them.
The six men allegedly armed with two factory-made pistols arrived in what appeared to be a beige brown Toyota Lumina Sedan with a bogus registration BEQ 253.
Gumu allegedly indicated for them to drop two men.
He then left to check Lin for their banking run. After informing Lin that he was ready, he went to the car park, started the car and allegedly parked in a position where the robbers could attack Lin when she walked to the car.
While Lin was walking to get to the car, she was held up and attacked by the robbers who threw Lin onto the pavement and took the cash in front of Gumu and escaped.
Allegations were made that Gumu did nothing to help Lin and watched but did not report to police.
He was arrested on Sept 24 and charged when police viewed the CCTV camera recording.
The case was adjourned to Nov 5.