Sepik reserve officers to stage march

 By ROSELYN ELLISON

MORE than 1,000 reservists and auxiliary police officers in East Sepik are planning a peaceful march next Thursday in protest about unpaid entitlements.

The protest march is planned to start from the Kaindi YC Hall along the Dagua road to the provincial government headquarters in Wewak.

They plan to hand over a petition to ESP Governor Sir Michael Somare, officials from the provincial administration and police. 

Provincial police reservist Sgt David Bandi said the protest march is because of the non-payment of entitlements owed to them by the police department. 

Bandi said reservists in other provinces had been paid their final entitlements.

“However East Sepik and the entire Momase region were left out for reasons known only to Police Commissioner Tom Kulunga,” Bandi said.

The petition includes demands such as:

l Payment of outstanding monthly allowances for the reservists and auxiliaries for 11 years;

l Payment of 27 years of service entitlements for the reservists; and

l Payment for 10 years of service for the auxiliary units in the province.

The petition said every police officer should be paid entitlements and allowances as stated in the Police Act.

“We are now calling on Commissioner Kulunga to make funds available from the K276 million given to the police department by the national government recently,” Bandi said. 

Bandi said they had been told that Kulunga had suspended the services of reservists and auxiliary officers.

He said they had already informed the director of the reservist and auxiliary unit at the police headquarters in Port Moresby about the march.