Home at last, the last remaining hostages taken by criminals in the Southern Highlands have been released unharmed by their captors and are now back safe in Port Moresby with their families.
Prime Minister (PM) James Marape was at hand to receive them this afternoon at the APEC Terminal.
Marape said the work to have them released was a joint effort by police, the defense force and the provincial governments of Southern Highlands, Western and Hela provinces.
“I want to thank the police commissioner, his men and women, the defense force commander and all his men, governor Undialu and all Hela leaders and a host of people, missionaries and community leaders who assisted in this operation.”
“It has been a stressful week for all involved and to finally have the hostages back safely in the custody of our security personnel is very important to us as a country, and as a people. We apologize to the families of those taken as hostage for ransom. It took us a while, but the last three hostages are now secured and will join their families shortly,” the PM said.
Marape also said an amount of cash was given to secure their release, but it was not the full amount of K3.5million that was initially demanded by the criminals as ransom money.
Meanwhile, the PM made a call to the criminals to surrender to police before the law gets to them. He said what happened was serious and now the second phase of this operation will be to have those criminals arrested and charged.
Marape said the first phase of the operation was completed with the release of the three, including the New Zealand Professor, Bryce Barker.
Initially, the criminals released the first hostage earlier this week.
A security team comprising of police and defense force personnel is still based up at the location and ready to respond should there be a call to go into the area and apprehend the criminals.
Nevertheless, for the freed hostages, it was a relief to be finally free and back in the safety of their families, who were also there at the airport this afternoon to see them come home.