{"id":659008,"date":"2022-05-17T21:50:21","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T21:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=74274"},"modified":"2022-05-17T21:50:21","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T21:50:21","slug":"marape-pledges-no-stone-unturned-in-investigation-into-fatal-basil-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/05\/17\/marape-pledges-no-stone-unturned-in-investigation-into-fatal-basil-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"Marape pledges \u2018no stone unturned\u2019 in investigation into fatal Basil crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Papua New Guinea police have been tasked to furnish a full investigation report on the death of Deputy Prime Minister Sam Basil and his bodyguard First Constable Neil Maino.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister James Marape told Basil\u2019s children that &#8220;no stone would be left unturned&#8221; by police as they investigate the deaths.<\/p>\n<p>He was speaking on Sunday during the arrival of the casket of his deputy at the Jackson\u2019s International Airport ceremonial car park.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?s=Sam+Basil+crash\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> Other reports on the crash of the Deputy PM<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Basil died in a head-on vehicle collision along the Bulolo Highway in Morobe Province last Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have instructed the police to give a full account of the last steps of the Deputy Prime Minister, the journey the oncoming driver took, and every circumstance behind what happened in the lead-up to his passing,\u201d Marape said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA report is expected for us to bring to full conclusion the passing of our nation\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marape gave this assurance to family members, people of Bulolo and Morobe, friends, members of Basil\u2019s United Labour Party (ULP), members of the disciplined forces and the public at the airport.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes, in life, it is not easy to understand why such tragic circumstances happen in this manner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Words cannot express loss<\/strong><br \/>\nMarape said words could not fully express the loss of Basil to the nation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe stand with the family, we stand with the people and Wau-Bulolo, we stand with the people of Morobe Province, we stand with the United Labour Party, we stand with every citizen &#8212; men and women, boys and girls &#8212; of our beloved country to receive the Deputy Prime Minister of our country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_73948\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-73948\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-73948\" src=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Sam-Basil-JBlades-RNZ-680wide-300x226.png\" alt=\"PNG's Deputy Prime Minister Sam Basil\" width=\"400\" height=\"302\" srcset=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Sam-Basil-JBlades-RNZ-680wide-300x226.png 300w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Sam-Basil-JBlades-RNZ-680wide-80x60.png 80w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Sam-Basil-JBlades-RNZ-680wide-557x420.png 557w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Sam-Basil-JBlades-RNZ-680wide.png 680w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-73948\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PNG Deputy Prime Minister Sam Basil &#8230; died last week after a collision along the Bulolo-Lae Road. Image: Johnny Blades\/RNZ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt is his last time to leave Lae for Port Moresby, and for the last time to be with us in Port Moresby, for us to accord him the respect he deserves and send him back to rest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a moment none of us thought would happen, I never thought it would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marape said he was in a meeting last Wednesday night when news came from Lae of the accident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI asked those who were seated with me to offer a prayer for him (Mr Basil), as we were hearing that he was struggling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, the nation is coming to grips with the passing, for the first time, of a deputy prime minister of our country while serving in office.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Highest dignity promised<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cThis is very, very sad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marape told Basil\u2019s family that the entire country joined with them in mourning the loss of their father, husband, son and brother.<\/p>\n<p>He said Basil and himself first entered Parliament in 2007 and he was privileged to have served with him in Cabinet as a minister and later as DPM.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe excelled to the highest standard in service to his people of Wau-Bulolo \u2013 which was second to none, to Morobe and to Papua New Guinea,\u201d Marape said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe nation will give the highest dignity to a servant of our nation who has passed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will give him, in his final tour-of-duty, the highest recognition that he deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Miriam Zarriga<\/em> <em>is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2022\/05\/18\/marape-pledges-no-stone-unturned-in-investigation-into-fatal-basil-crash\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Papua New Guinea police have been tasked to furnish a full investigation report on the death of Deputy Prime Minister Sam Basil and his bodyguard First Constable Neil Maino. Prime Minister James Marape told Basil\u2019s children that \u201cno stone would be left unturned\u201d by police as they investigate the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48642,49013,48719,5,3553,37831,12,366,49014,13,48645],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659008"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":659011,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659008\/revisions\/659011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}