Owner explains why Police closed bar

By Soli Wilson 06 April 2019, 12:00AM

Popular nightclub, Te Namo Bar, was closed by the Police on Friday evening for not having a proper liquor license.

Owner and General Manager, Manuele Puka, confirmed this saying their liquor license was issued on “Wednesday or earlier this week", but they failed to pick it up from the office of the Ministry of Revenue.

The 38-year-old said his employees contacted him around 7 o'clock to notify him about the situation.

“I have had such a busy week, I was supposed to pick it up on Friday but I had missed to do so," he said. 

“And I didn’t think much about it since I have already paid for it, I just needed to pick it up."

He admitted it was his fault for not picking up the bar’s liquor license on time.

“See the problem is, that I forgot to pick it up on Friday, but I had already paid for everything. So when that happened, we had no other choice as Customs has already closed by that time,” Mr. Puka told this newspaper.

Established in 2017, Te Namo was relocated from Matautu last month and had just opened its new location. 

“For the last three months, we have been scoping around for a new spot - we approached a lot of places but no luck until we found a good spot where the previous nightclub known as Ace of Clubs used to be but downstairs,” he said last month.

“Te Namo is Tokelauan for The Lagoon and because I am Tokelauan, I wanted the name to be from Tokelau and so the name reminds me of home."


By Soli Wilson 06 April 2019, 12:00AM

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