Police: Stop blocking roads

By YVONNE HAIP
ACTING Assistant Commissioner of Police (highlands) Teddy Tei has warned locals to stop blocking sections of the Highlands Highway or face arrest.
Tei issued the warning while condemning last week’s roadblocks set up by villagers living along the Poroma-Nipa section of the highway, in Hela.
The roadblocks were set up after a stu­dent from the area studying in Tari was attacked and wounded by Tari locals.
The students’ tribesmen and others resorted to blocking the main highway for three days and restricted the flow of traffic through the area.
However, quick action by police resulted in the highway being cleared last Wednesday.
Tei said such actions were not right and urged leaders and educated elites in the area to teach their people to respect the highway.
He expressed concern that unlike other Highlands provinces, roadblocks were a problem in the Southern Highlands and Hela.
He said if people continued to disrupt the normal flow of traffic and disobeyed police orders, police would resort to stricter measures.
“The highway is not the place to solve your problems, there are laws to deal with your problems,” he said.
Three arrests have been made in relation to the roadblocks, and Tei commended the Hela police commander and the mobile squad’s contingent commander for sorting out the issue.