Koki youths told: ‘Crime doesn’t pay’

By MALUM NALU

 National Capital District police metropolitan commander, Andy Bawa, has urged youths at the notorious Koki Market to turn away from a life of crime.

He laid down the law on Tuesday at the opening of a new cop shop at Koki, which shot into international notoriety in June this year, when four Chinese nationals were brutally murdered in the shop they were operating there.

Bawa… ‘You can go to jail, you can die, you can lose your legs and arms’.-Picture by MALUM NALU

The new cop shop was built with funding provided by Moresby South MP, Justin Tkatchenko, and will use police and community manpower to patrol Koki.

Bawa provided anecdotal evidence of crime at Koki when his vehicle broke down there last Friday when he was in civvies.

“Last Friday, I was driving this way,” he recalled.

‘My vehicle broke down and I pulled up along the side.

“It gave me a chance to see first-hand what many people are complaining about at Koki Market.

“I saw many youths drinking home brew, smoking marijuana, pretending to walk across the pedestrian crossing, and trying to open the doors of passing vehicles.

“One young man, intoxicated on ‘steam’’ and with a screw driver in hand, attacked the driver and crew of a PMV, and broke the glasses of the 25-seater bus.

“He then walked into the market as if nothing had happened.

“This is an example of the escalating law and order problem at Koki.”

Bawa said Koki was a historical icon of Port Moresby, which was there before the young people of today were born, and deserved to be treated with respect to reclaim its former glory.

“I appeal to the youths of Koki, the Goilalas, Taris, Wabags, Hagens, Chimbus, all of you from all over PNG, not to stand at the pedestrian crossing,” he said.

“Do not hold up men and women, do not steal vehicles, do not pick pockets, drink ‘steam’, check the bags of mothers and market-goers.

“Police will be given all the power.

“Enough is enough.

“Koki must change for the better.

“We can’t stay like this forever.

“There are jobs that we can create for you in cleaning the market and others.

“Crime doesn’t pay.

“You can go to jail, you can die, you can lose your legs and arms.”