Judge: Landowners just greedy

By JACOB POK
LANDOWNERS have gone absolutely crazy over money and have totally forgotten the destruction caused to their environment by project developers, National Court judge Justice Ambeng Kandakasi has said.
“People have gone absolutely crazy over money and lost focus and passion for their land,” Kandakasi said yesterday while presiding on a matter relating to conflicts on payments of funds by Forest Authority to some certain landowner groups in Finschaafen, Morobe.
He said landowners did not recognise the destruction being caused to their land and yet form all kinds of incorporated land groups for the greed of money.
Kandakasi told lawyers handling the matter that it was an “old case” and was in court for too long, adding that the court was not only meant for the people of Finschaafen alone but was a national court of justice that serves everyone in the country.
He also pointed that most of the problems regarding funds are caused by third parties or officers who are assigned to distribute the funds.
“If the funds are distributed fairly by those third parties, then the problems should not have arisen and people should not have come to court.”