Probe into troubled forces starts

 POLICE have started investigating last week’s incident involving its officers and some soldiers in Port Moresby with an assurance that there will be no cover-up.

Police Commissioner Gari Baki told a press conference yesterday that he was treating the matter seriously and that “nothing will be swept under the carpet”.

He said he had already met his counterpart from the PNG Defence Force to express his concern. 

A man was killed and a soldier injured after their vehicle sped through a police roadblock on Thursday night.

Baki said they were waiting for a female passenger to come forward to help in the investigation.

“We need to locate her and obtain statements from her as to what transpired on the evening of the shooting,” he said.

The soldier, identified as a member of First Royal Pacific Island Regiment based at the Taurama Barracks, was released after receiving treatment at the Port Moresby General Hospital.

Baki said initial investigations showed that at about 8pm on Thursday, a grey vehicle with registration number BDJ 849, sped past a roadblock manned by a mobile squad somewhere between Hohola and Tokarara. He said the vehicle was driven without lights, prompting the police to suspect that it might have been stolen. A high-speed chase followed.

The grey sedan overtook several vehicles before crashing into a vehicle that had stopped at another roadblock leading to Morata.

The driver of the sedan was killed.

Police recovered a homemade gun under the driver’s seat of the sedan. 

It was, however, not loaded.