Roadblock stops traffic on highway

By PAUL SINGE
THE flow of goods and services into the interior of the Highlands region came to a complete stop last Thursday following a roadblock
on the Highlands Highway.
Betelnut dealers, travellers and heavy trucks were left stranded on either side of the highway as relatives of a man
ran over by a speeding PMV bus on Wednesday evening blocked the highway.
The unidentified man’s body was taken to Goroka General Hospital morgue early Thursday morning.
One affected mother from Wabag in Enga said in front of the Goroka police station she was distressed by the roadblock.
Napi Paku from Wabag town, who had travelled to Madang last Tuesday to buy betelnuts to sell in Wabag town, said she spent K12,000 to buy 65 bags of betelnuts and hired a 25-seater bus from Madang to
Wabag.
“I did not realise that there would be such an incident and I spent all my money on betel nuts and transport,” Paku said.
She said they were with other PMV buses in the middle of Eastern Highlands section of the highway at around 4am when she received a phone call and was told of the incident at Watabung.
Paku said they did
not know what to do
but the safest way
was to seek refuge at
the Goroka police station.
“If this roadblock continues then I will make great loss and it is very hard to recover such money very quickly,” she said.
She said if she sold the 65 bags of betelnuts in Wabag she could expect to earn three times what she had spent.
Another angry passenger, Paku Sebastian from Wabag, who travelled on another
PMV bus from Lae,
Morobe, to Wabag, said because of the roadblock, it was unsafe to travel.
 “We are accompanying our school kids and so much cargo but what can we do?” Sebastian said.
Another landowner from Hides 1 and 7, in Tari, Sailes Norman
and  his two wives struggled to catch a PMV to Tari.
Sailes said they were in Goroka for family business.
“We were in the Goroka bus stop early yesterday morning but there were no movement of buses.
“Later we discovered that there were roadblocks at Watabung so we are struggling here,” he said.