Prison escapees from Transgogol area: Pokanis

By DYLAN MURRAY
CORRECTIONAL Service Commissioner Stephen Pokanis has confirmed that some of the escapees from Madang’s Beon prison over the past week were from the Transgogol area.
Pokanis appealed to Madang residents to take caution and report to authorities if they had any information on the 22 men who broke out of Beon in the early hours of Monday.
He said that a similar escape had happened last year when men from the Transgogol area escaped, and now a second group had escaped.
“These men aren’t good men; most of these men were convicted of murder,” he said.
Pokanis said that they still did not know the exact time of the escape but attributed it to negligence by officers on duty.
“We had four officers on duty but have received word that these officers may have been asleep when the 22 men escaped,” he said.
He said they were only alerted when an officer did his rounds at around 5am and noticed that a fence was cut.
“There is also word that the escape was abetted by people from outside,” he said.
“People on the outside probably cut the fence and helped the men escape, but this needs further investigation.”
Pokanis said that instructions had already been given to the acting commanding officer to conduct the investigations, and that there would also be a team from headquarters working on the investigation as well.
He noted that disciplinary action against the duty officers for allegedly neglecting their duty had started, but said that it did not really help the matter at hand.