The Opposition has made an urgent plea to the Prime Minister to seriously take drastic measures to address the deteriorating law and order situation in the country following the recent murder of a large number of men by their rival tribal group over the weekend in the Enga province.
In a press conference held after the parliament sitting, the Opposition Leader Douglas Tomuriesa said that Prime Minister (PM) James Marape must not turn a blind eye to this extremely violent incident and other pressing law and order issues currently experienced in the country.
“We today have made a call very clear on the floor of parliament on security issues in the country, and that call is out there that the prime minister cannot continue to sidetrack the issue and say other things,” said the Opposition Leader.
Today in parliament the Member for Vanimo Green, Belden Namah, asked nine questions to the PM regarding what the government is doing to address the law-and-order woes, however, Mr. Tomuriesa said Marape did not address the questions and continued to deflect the issue.
He said this kind of response from Marape is extremely dangerous because it shows that the PM is not that serious about the men, women and children who continue to suffer from tribal fights and other criminal activities that are continuously being committed in the country.
It’s not only that, Mr. Tomuriesa said that the law-and-order situation is bad for investment opportunities and since the PM is focused on selling Papua New Guinea (PNG) as a great investment destination to the rest of the world, he should be adamant in fixing and improving the country’s situation with better security policies.
“The prime minister need to put his foot down and address this. He cannot continue to speak as if it’s not important.”
Meanwhile, Tomuriesa said that as the alternate government, they plan on handling things way much better than the current government and call on the Members on the other side of the house to see what is happening and switch sides and support them replace the PM and with it, work together to better improve the law-and-order situation.
“We would like to make it loud and clear to the people that this alternate government is not going to sit down and watch that continued trend of people being affected around Papua New Guinea.”