BY ALFRED PAGEPITU
GIZO
SERVICES including banks, shops, liquor outlets and pubs & night clubs in Gizo are closed following yesterday’s escape incident.
Police have informed owners of businesses in Gizo, Munda and Noro and nearby islands to close temporarily while they sort out the issue of the 29 Bougainvillean men who had escaped police custody yesterday morning.
Gizo police officers together with reinforcements from Honiara are on the lookout for the escapees.
The Bougainvilleans had been arrested on Tuesday after they illegally crossed border and were making their way to Noro town.
It is reported that they were following news that one of their kinsmen had died in Noro under suspicious circumstances.
RSIPF are now carrying out high visible security services and investigation is going on right now but they kindly ask the relatives of Shortlands Island and Bougainville to calm.
Meanwhile, Western Province Premier Mr Wayne Maepio declared yesterday that all liquor outlets within Gizo, Noro and Munda are to remain closed together with public bars, restaurants, resorts and night clubs.
Maepio said “both parties will settle this issue in a proper way rather than taking law into our own hands”.
Maepio understands that RSIPF together with the PRT have now set up a security service around Gizo, Noro and Munda for public safety.
