Scores of police cases pending

OF the 354 reported serious offences in Morobe over the last year, 309 cases remain pending, according to statistics released by provincial police commander Superintendent Alex N’Drasal.
There were 39 murder cases over the year, 17 categorised as wilful murder.
Sixteen arrests were made into the 22 murder cases reported, nine arrests were made into the seventeen wilful murder cases and six arrests were made for 33 rape cases.
From the pending offences, wounding was the highest, with 32 cases, followed by arson with 31, while armed robbery and causing grievous bodily harm had 25 cases.
A total of 940 minor offences were reported in 2018 and out of those, 795 offences are pending.
For traffic offences, 53 cases were reported over the 12 months and 31 cases remain pending.
According to N’Drasal, most of the offences reported are from the main police stations, Bulolo, Wau, Mutzing, Finschhafen and Mumeng.
“Other rural stations have similar number cases but could not be reported because of the remoteness, communication problems,” he said.
N’Drasal said police would still follow up on those cases pending to try to make arrests although resources and manpower were drawbacks.
“In other locations in rural Morobe, complainants do not come forward to report cases and often suffer silently in fear of repercussions by perpetrators,” he said.