Random searches continue

POLICE will continue to randomly stop and search vehicles from Gulf and Central for betel nuts and large quantities of liquor.
Central police commander Chief Insp Tapp Opai said this after three PMVs carrying betel nuts were stopped and impounded on Wednesday.
Chief Insp Opai said PMVs were travelling into Port Moresby from Kerema, in Gulf, when they were stopped along the Hiritano Highway.
He said police escorted the PMVs and impounded them at the Gordon Police Station.
Chief Insp Opai cautioned the PMV owners and released the vehicles.
But he warned that similar breaches throughout the duration of the state of emergency (SOE) period would not be tolerated.
He warned that police would impound any vehicle transporting betel nuts and large quantities of liquor.
Chief Insp Opai said impounded vehicles would only be released at the end of the SOE period on June 2.
SOE controller and Police Comm David Manning said earlier that checkpoints in Central would be removed from Tuesday.
He said the removal would allow villagers in Central to transport their garden produce to residents in NCD.
“The people of NCD are heavily dependent on food coming in from the Central and other provinces,” Comm Manning said.
“The lockdown and the roadblock adversely affected the people in both NCD and the Central so some adjustments had to be made.
“Police checks will continue where the normal health protocols such as physical distancing on public transport is observed and prohibited goods were not being transported between the provinces.
“I envisage the police checkpoints to become more like health checkpoints as well as information stations for the travelling public.”