Central province governor Alphonse Moroi yesterday denied that he allegedly failed to honour a commitment to build an Angabanga by-pass road along the Hiritano highway in the Kairuku area.
Mr Moroi said in a statement that he had fulfilled his commitment by paying K60,000 at around February 2004 to the landowners through the Bereina Catholic diocese after genuine landowners were identified.
Following that, the Works Department was informed and work began couple of weeks later to divert the flow of river to the bridge and to construct a by-pass road.
However, the workers were chased away by the landowners.
Mr Moroi said: “What can I do when the people have a negative attitude in development? It was the landowners who created this problem.
“If the bridge and the road get washed away, the landowners are to be blamed for it,” he said.
The governor had also called on the media not to be biased when reporting but also liaise with the provincial government before publishing such sensitive issues.
Governor Moroi denied a report in the Post-Courier last Monday, which stated that landowners from Ina’aoe and Esibaboa villages had agreed to have construction work done on the road but they had closed it because Governor Moroi and the former Gulf governor Chris Haiveta had allegedly failed to honour the commitment they made.
In the report, Kairuku-Hiri MP Paru Aihi and some landowners from Kairuku claimed Mr Moroi allegedly failed to honour a commitment to build an Angabanga by-pass road.