THE National Capital District Commission reservists policing the betelnut ban say they were not involved in the car chase that led to the death of an elderly vendor at Hohola last Tuesday.They said this in a report they filed with NCD Governor Powes Parkop, who said yesterday he wanted eyewitness accounts of the accident so he would decide on his next course of action.
Eyewitness accounts suggests that a vehicle loaded with reservists had apprehended two vendors but Veronica Memi Onne tried to escape from them and was killed in a hit-and-run by a PMV bus near the PNG Power headquarters. The PMV sped off instead of stopping to check the victim. The Post-Courier’s front page story and picture last Thursday of the dying Onne at the pavement and her grieving relatives drew angry reactions from witnesses and city residents about the buai ban enforcers’ heavy-handed tactics against buai and general roadside vendors. Mr Parkop said yesterday the report before him stated that NCDC reservists were not involved in the chase which led to Onne’s death. But he assured the relatives of the deceased that if the reserve police committed any crime they would be referred to the police for riminal prosecution. "I got a report from the reserve police enforcement division; I am waiting for the witness statement and invite the public at Hohola to also give their side of the story," Mr Parkop said. "The incident was witnessed by a lot of people in the public. "Our police might say one thing and the witness might say another thing so we ask the public to come forward and give information." The Governor said according to the report, NCDC reserve police were on a routine patrol and had attended to some vendors there, picked them up in the vehicle, questioned them and released them. He said the reservists had no knowledge of Onne, how she fled and why she had ran away from them. They denied chasing her, Mr Parkop said. The Governor was adamant that NCDC would not be responsible for Onne’s death. "No incident of abuse took place, what motivated her to run nobody knows therefore we will only contribute to the house cry as a sign of respect for the tragic death," he said. "Since the ban on sale of betelnuts in the city of Port Moresby, all of us have paid a high price in achieving the outcome of the ban." NCD police have appealed to the driver involved in the hit-and-run to go to the police station for an interview. Metropolitan Superintendent Andy Bawa has directed the police traffic section to investigate the accident. Mr Parkop issued a media statement yesterday saying that the NCDC had spent millions of kina policing the buai ban while on the part of the procedures in Gulf and Central provinces have suffered loss in profit from the sales. PNGFacts/Post Courier
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