The government is concentrating on preparing the State of Emergency (SOE) instruments over the next three weeks

Before the parliament sits in November, the government will spend the next three weeks looking into State of Emergency [SOE] instruments to address law and order issues, especially in Enga Province and other parts of the country.

Prime Minister James Marape said the government has directed the Police Commissioner, David Manning, and Police Minister Peter Tsiamalili Jr to make sure they put the focus on this one.

“If it needs to be for us to give another 21 more days of state of emergency to give coverage to the policemen and cabinet this week, we'll look into this matter.

“So, 21 days could take us to Parliament sitting, and Parliament then can give a state of emergency that gives the three months that I was alluding to earlier,” Mr Marape said.

The Prime Minister noted that before the recent killings in Enga, he consulted with local leaders, including MPs.

He emphasized that many issues could be resolved by local leadership, not just those in the National Parliament.

Mr Marape has urged councilors to do their jobs and identify the root causes of the problems in their community.

“We're paying councilors now for the first time, and I ask the councilors to do their job, even in this day and age when young people are not willing to listen to the councilors, for the councilors and village court people to note who are offenders of the law.

“Because there will be a time in which police will still come to them. Those who have records of murdering people slowly have been arrested not directly, but one by one, and we have a crowd of criminals right now in jail being prosecuted as we speak.

“And so, there's no place to hide in this country. Eventually, the arms of the law will catch up with them. So, the councilors, you talk, and they don't listen to you, make a notation of those who are committing this crime,” Mr Marape said.

Meanwhile, PM Marape reiterates that under the current new bill that is coming up, police will have the outreach and power to do many things, and once the law is finally passed, they will announce to the country what the police can do.