Bougainville denies asking for joint meeting deferral

THE Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) has denied requesting for the deferral of the joint supervisory body (JSB) on Monday, contrary to what Prime Minister James Marape claimed.
ABG Attorney-General Ezekiel Masatt said: “I am disturbed by the prime minister’s media statement, responding to the Opposition Leader (Douglas Tomuriesa), saying the Bougainville Team had requested for the deferment of the Joint Supervisory Body to Wednesday (today).”
Masatt is also the Minister for the Bougainville Independence Mission.
“These are the facts:

• MINISTER (Manasseh) Makiba called me in the middle of the night stating the prime minister had requested the JSB be deferred to Wednesday and that he was waiting on the President’s (Ishmael Toroama’s) agreement;
•  I THEN alerted the President, and after having considered his timetable, agreed to the request for deferment;
• I RELAYED the President’s consent to Minister Makiba at midnight; and,
• TO now say that we requested for the deferral is a lie.

“Bougainville as usual is always prepared. The Government as usual wasn’t,” he added.
“The Joint Technical Team meeting set for last Friday was moved to Sunday evening because department heads defied their Chief Secretary and didn’t show up.
“These sort of lies impinges on the integrity of the Bougainville leadership, particularly the President.”
Masatt said Marape should verify the above with his Minister Makiba.
“He might have been misled by his Minister,” he said.
Marape said in a statement on Monday evening: “We were on schedule to have our JSB meeting today (Monday) but our friends from Bougainville wanted to go through some points raised by the technical working committee, hence the deferral to Wednesday morning.”