Court defers Wobiro’s case

 By HENRY PAMBUAI 

JUSTICE Sir Bernard Sakora has ordered next week’s trial of Western Governor Ati Wobiro and two others on fraud-related charges involving K7.9 million belonging to the State to be deferred.

He granted the order requested by the defence lawyer Justin Wohuinangu, of Posman Kua Aisi Lawyers, on Monday after he sought for more time to prepare for the trial to which State prosecutors made no objection.

Sir Bernard also ordered that the proceedings return before the court administrator, Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika, where Wohuinangu and the  prosecutors needed to undergo further pre-trialling before a convenient date for trial was nominated.

Wohuinangu made the application on the basis that they were not able to have the witnesses, who were in South Fly, Port Moresby, Lae and Madang, and a lawyer ready for the trial.

Sir Bernard granted the application by the defence lawyer although he was not completely satisfied with Wohuinangu’s reasons, saying that whether or not a counsel would be ready was not the concern of the court but an in-house matter for the law firm to deal with.

The three defendants Wobiro, Western provincial administrator Dr Modowa Gumoi and Norman Carl May appeared before Sir Bernard, who is expected to preside over the trial.

The three defendants are each charged with four counts of misappropriation and four counts of conspiracy to defraud while Wobiro and Gumoi are given an additional charge of abuse of office.

The accused trio allegedly conspired to establish the Fly Care Foundation Inc using K7,900,060 belonging to the Fly River government between Nov 10 and Dec 15, 2013.