Police advise personnel in logging camps to withdraw from sites

ALL police personnel in logging camps in the Northern Command have been advised to withdraw from those sites, says Asst Comm of Police Peter Guinness.
He said police headquarters had released a directive to the command that no police officer was allowed to be at any logging camps.
ACP Guinness said reports gathered from locals at some of logging camp sites was that police personnel were still on site providing security, despite the notice issued late last year.
He said he would notify provincial police commanders and had them call back any officers at camp sites. ACP Guinness said Morobe acting police commander Chief Insp John Daviaga had been instructed to pull out any officers still at logging sites in the province.
“Once these policemen are removed from those logging camps, there will be no more deployment of policemen into those camp sites,” he said. ACP Guinness warned logging operators to stop offering inducements for policemen to stay at camp sites.
“The actions that these operators are doing to policemen amounts to bribery and corruption,” Guinness said.
“Accepting money is one reason why many policemen are sneaking out from their commands to go to logging camps.”
ACP Guinness said any police officer proved to have taken a bribe or deserting his or her post to go to a logging camp site would be arrested and charged along with those offering the inducement.