Complainant loses court battle against Gobe PDL 4 landowners

A MAN failed last week to file a motion against the chairmen of court landowner groups Souwolou, Moloko, Souwolo Hapropake and Bubuku Gohu.
Justice Don Sawong, sitting in the Waigani National Court, ruled that Paul Keikei had no legal standing to initiate the action.
He said although Keikei had claimed that he represented a landowner group of Gobe, PDL 4, there was no evidence to support it.
There was no evidence that Keikei was a member of the clan he alleged to represent nor authorised by his clan ILG to represent them in the proceedings, he said.
In dismissing Keikei’s application, Sawong also ordered him to pay costs.
Keikei had named James Siaw Wamo and three others as defendants in his application.
All four are also directors and shareholders of PDL 4 landowner company, Kiki Resource Services.
In his application, Keikei said he was a concerned landowner.
He claimed that he and other landowners had missed out on business development grants and sought to remove the four from the company.
He also wanted them to be investigated for alleged fraud and misuse of company funds.
He claimed that K4.1 million in business development grants was paid to the landowner company but wished to know where the money had gone to.
He had also sought an injunction to free the company’s bank accounts and to restrain the four directors from accessing any of the company’s assets.
Earlier, his counsel had argued that Kiki Resource Services was an umbrella company for all landowners and not for the defendants alone.
It was stated that funds given to the company had been misused.
The shares in the company were not held in trust and there was no evidence of any trust being created.
The court found that there was no evidence that Keikei was a member of the clan and there was no authorisation from his clan ILG to represent them.