Officers charged with stealing roofing iron

By JAMES APA GUMUNO
FOURTEEN public servants living in Wabag town were arrested in the early hours of yesterday morning for stealing roofing iron used for fencing the Momei Oval.
Enga provincial police commander Martin Lakari said yesterday from Wabag police conducted a raid and confiscated stolen materials from inside their high permanent houses.
Lakari said it was surprising to see public servants stealing corrugated roofing iron used to fence the oval.
He said police recovered more than 80 sheets of roofing iron during their raid on Bit Street, in the town area, police barracks and Lanegap.
He said some of the public servants arrested and charged with being in possession of stolen property worked at the provincial headquarters.
Others were teachers and two were former public servants.
Lakari said he told his men to conduct the raid after discovering that half of the corrugated roofing iron used to fence the soccer field had gradually disappeared at night.
He said based on information from sources, police raided the homes of the public servants.
Lakari said the public servants removed the roofing iron to build their own houses in their communities.
He said those arrested were refused police bail yesterday and would appear before the Wabag district court this morning for mention.
Lakari said he could not understand why public servants saw it fit to steal from public facilities when they were supposed to look after and protect such facilities.
He said the soccer field was now used by
youths and school children in the Wabag school soccer competition sponsored by local MP Sam Abal.
Lakari said the raid was part of the pre-election operation conducted by police in the province, an operation that would continue until the 2012 general election.