Court orders end to protest

A NATIONAL Court order has restrained members of the Students Representative Council at the University of Papua New Guinea from boycotting classes.
The interim injunction also restrained them from conducting activities “which are contrary to their enrolment as students” at UPNG.
The order was sought by UPNG and named SRC members, including president Kenneth Rapa, as defendants.
It restrained them from barricading or locking classrooms and lecture theatres, or threatening and assaulting legally enrolled students and university staff, “pending the determination of the proceeding”.
Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology Malakai Tabar yesterday welcomed the court order. “The thuggery of these opportunists must end and the violence has to stop,” Tabar said.
“The overwhelming majority of students simply want to go to class, sit their exams and proceed to the next semester.
“Hardworking students have been held hostage by the people with political agendas and that has now been brought to an end by court order. We all know that the real ringleaders behind the incident (yesterday) are not students, and now it will be hard for them to hide among the student body.”
The students’ protest and boycott of classes was to support their demand that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill step down and be questioned by police over allegations of corruption against him.