Soldier charged with attempting to kill two police officers

A PNG Defence Force soldier, returning for Covid-19 security operations along the PNG-Indonesian border, appeared in the Vanimo District Court accused of attempting to kill two policemen in West Sepik in 2018, senior magistrate Sasa Inkung says.
Valentine Agwi, 28, from Wosera in East Sepik, appeared yesterday charged with assault causing grievous bodily harm and attempted murder of the policemen at Dali Police Barracks in Vanimo on March 6, 2018. Agwi had allegedly evaded arrest and returned to his home base at the Second Royal Pacific Island Regiment at Moem Barracks in East Sepik after his tour of duty for the 2018 border security operations had lapsed.
However, police arrested him when they spotted him in Vanimo town last week after he had returned this year for another tour of duty for border operations.
Agwi was then taken to the police station and charged for the 2018 incident. He is now on a K2,000 bail and returned to his barracks at the PNGDF forward base in Vanimo and is under strict court orders not to leave Vanimo until his case was over.
He will appear before the same court on July 29.
Inkung said one of the policemen was now blind in one eye while the other officer was suffering from head injuries after Agwi and five other soldiers allegedly attacked them two years ago.
Police commander Chief Insp Mosses Ibsagi said Agwi and his co-accused had allegedly rampaged the police barracks during a dawn raid, causing about K20,000 worth of damage at about 3am when the policemen and their families were still asleep.
Chief Insp Ibsagi said Agwi and his co-accused rampaged through the barracks and beat up the policemen with timber.
They terrorised the families and destroyed valuable personal items like laptops and television sets.”
Chief Insp Ibsagi said: “Probation policemen David Julius, from Jiwaka, and Simon John, from Western Highlands, sustained serious injuries and were admitted at the Vanimo General Hospital.”
Julius had sustained facial and internal injuries.