Police chief: Life’s more precious

By JAMES APA GUMUNO
MONEY, pigs and other materials given in compensation for deaths are worth nothing compared to a person’s life, Highland’s police chief Teddy Tei says.
He said compensation payments were only to make peace within the community but would not prevent suspects from facing the law.
The assistant police commissioner said this yesterday after a community leader, Londe Tole, of the Elti clan in Wapenamanda, Enga, now living in Western Highlands, offered to pay K30,000, 59 pigs and a horse to the rival Wusi clan as compensation for the deaths of two rival clansmen.
Tei said Elti tribesmen shot dead three men at Waliya checkpoint on last Oct 30, din an on-going tribal conflict.
He said one of Elti clansmen who shot the three men was arrested by police and charged with three counts of wilful murder last Thursday.
The other suspects are still at large.
Tei identified the deceased as Kaki Eng, Wilson Andrew and Tom Kalai.
“I want to call on Tole now hiding with other suspects at Kelua village in Hagen Central to surrender all suspects to the police,” he said.
“He can’t offer compensation to the relatives of the deceased men and protect the people responsible for their deaths.
“God gives life and He will take it back, no other person has the right to take away the life of other people,” he said.
He said if Tole did not cooperate and surrendered his clansmen, police move in and arrest the suspects.
“Tole is thinking that money and pigs are enough to compensate the lives of other people and escape justice but life is precious and did not match these materials,” he said.