Widow calls for action

By PETER WARI
THE wife of a man allegedly shot by a policeman last Tuesday in Ialibu, Southern Highlands, wants police to arrest the officer immediately so her husband’s body can be repatriated home for burial.
Relatives of the deceased gave Ialibu police three days on Monday to round up the killer, his accomplice who had wounded another man and two other people or the body would remain at the Ialibu Hospital morgue.
Anna, wife of the deceased, Charles Wip, said it was heart-breaking when her husband’s body was in another district hospital morgue and she and her three children were mourning at Sumia village in Imbonggu.
“We left our three children at home and went to Ialibu last Tuesday when he was shot and died few minutes later,” she told The National.
“I left my husband’s body at the morgue and returned home and it broke my heart when the three children asked for their father.”
Anna said the four people told to surrender should cooperate with the police and the peace and good order committee.
“If they have a family and children, they will understand and feel the pain I’m in to lose someone you love so much and depend on,” she said.
Anna said her family were members of the United Church and her husband was a humble and peace-loving man.
“We are subsistence farmers and work hard each day to support the family,” she said.
“It will be a huge burden for me to raise our children Stacey, 11, in grade 5, Stanisah, 9, in elementary 2 and Jordan, three-year old.”
Mendi police station commander Insp Mack Hanema assured the grieving relatives that police would work with the peace and good order committee to have those responsible surrender to police.
The station commander said Mendi police were investigating the matter.
Insp Hanema said they were investigating how a policeman from Madang allegedly ended up in Southern Highlands and shot an innocent unarmed person.