While most parts of the country marked the 48 Independence of the nation, for police in Northern Province this year’s Independence Celebrations have been nothing short of eventful. Northern Provincial Police Commander, Ewai Segi said that it had all kicked started at 5pm on the eve of Thursday when a gang of men attempted to hold up a shop in town, which led to a confrontation with Police, seeing 3 gang members injured and one police officer shot. “The 3 gang members are on the run at the moment and we’ve been working all throughout the weekend to establish leads, but we will find them.” The PPC said in the attempt to apprehend the suspects, the officer was shot and was medevacked to Port Moresby to receive treatment. Fortunately, the officer is in stable condition and will soon be taken back to Popondetta. One incident following the music festival saw 3 others injured when a driver under the influence of alcohol crashed inflicting serious injury to two others and himself. He is now being held in police custody and will receive charges shortly. Meanwhile, while giving a roundup of the Independence weekend, PPC Segi stated that they did experience other major issues relating to alcohol consumption.