Policeman gets 22 years

By JULIA DAIA BORE
A POLICEMAN was yesterday jailed for 22 years for attempted murder by the Waigani National Court.
Benjamin Kageni, 47, committed the offence in May 2008 near the Bomana Police College outside Port Moresby.
Five years were, however, suspended due to Kageni’s old age and the time he had spent in custody at the prison.
Kageni, a chief sergeant and father of six children, is the second police officer to be sentenced in seven days.
Steven Numbos, from Kairiru Island in East Sepik, was given a two-year suspended sentence by Justice Panuel Mogish at the Waigani National Court last Thursday.
Kageni was charged with four counts of attempted murder last year. 
“This court cannot tolerate and condone the action of the prisoner who used an assault rifle to threaten and disperse a gathering of CS wardens outside the police college in May 2008,” Justice Salatiel Lenalia told Kageni.
“Is this what the public looks for in a disciplined force like the police or soldiers in the PNG Defence Force or Correctional Services officers?
“What’s more; the offences were committed in front of the model police station at the Bomana Training College.
“What a shame and mockery caused to the PNG police force,” Lenalia said.
He said if members of the police force could not preserve peace and good order in the country and maintain and enforce the law in an impartial and objective manner, who would do it?
Lenalia said this kind of behaviour “is frightening to imagine what can become of it if not met with an appropriate penalty with a view to deterring it”.
“Instead of upholding the law and showing an example to the public, the prisoner (while an officer of the police force) took the law into his own hands by causing fear, threats and intimidation of Correctional Services staff.
“This action lacks logic and is nonsensical,” Lenalia said.