East Sepik Provincial Police Commander, Superintendent Christopher Tamari will not be pulling any punches this New Year’s Eve as they gear up for operations.
Supt. Tamari said police will be out in full force and ready for any situation should anything turn sideways, but he is expecting the general public to be respectful on the eve of 2023.
“We expect everybody to celebrate peacefully and within the confines of the law. We’re setting up roadblocks and patrolling the coastal highways.”
After getting tipoffs that these areas are highly likely to have armed holdups, Tamari stated that police will be looking to secure the coastline roads for safe passage of commuters and so far, there have been no reports of that sort as yet.
“Initially there were a few holdups but since we’ve stepped up our presence on the coastline, nothing of that sort has occurred.”
Patrols along the interior highways will also be stepped up, with road blocks to be set up at main transit locations. The PPC added that it will be a tough challenge for his men as it is widely known that during this period of time many celebrations will not be without liquor.
“Given the New Year, people, youths especially tend to consume alcohol so we are looking to address those areas.”
Tamari and his men will be looking to crackdown on alcohol related incidents and other petty crimes, and should anyone be found infringing road traffic rules, they will be dealt with accordingly and to the full extent of the Law.
Meanwhile, after thorough investigations into the matter of the 3 bodies that were found off the coast between Wewak and Madang earlier this week, PPC Tamari said that police have ruled out sea piracy because these deaths were caused when the boat they were travelling in capsized due to bad weather.