Land dispute unresolved

The National Letters

WITH the latest happenings at Sogeri, where the Upper Koiari landowners have threatened to shut down Port Moresby’s main Mt Eriama water treatment plant and Rouna Power over claims of payments owed by the state to Koiari, we the Rouna Omani clan, who have a legitimate ILG# 1123 are forced to make a statement about this.
Before we do that, we want to let the public and other clans in Sogeri Plateau know us.
We, the Rouna Omani clan, live in the Lower Koiari region on a landmass of 6132 hectares and our clan is segregated into small sub-clans of Kohori, Favea, Mokoha Siriha, Goroha, Narime, Behori, Omani and Moiaha.
And let us be clear that we are the only clan that has a registered land group.
The ILG covers the villages of Miseme, Furimuti, Modawate, Vaivai, Maradahana, Rouna Camp, Marinumu, and various small groups around Sogeri Plateau.
Now getting to the nature of the protest and its cause, we blame the Secretary for Treasury for stopping the payment that caused this outrage.
Being the only clan with an ILG registration number recognising our legitimacy as the rightful landowners, our management committee made a submission for K35 million to the government last year and were granted K5 million by Treasury for clan-vetting.
A cheque, No. 013336, was raised and printed on Dec 29, 2018. Howevrr, after passing all systems in Treasury, such as signing of confirmation letters, priority clearance and cheque listing, the cheque was stopped and the legitimacy of the landowners between Upper and Lower Rouna area was questioned.
In light of this, we request the following:

  • An explanation as to why the K5 million cheque was stopped after it had fulfilled all Treasury and Finance Department requirements.
  • Did the secretary take sides when he stopped the cheque being paid out?
  • We, Rouna Omani ILG executives and clan members, as the umbrella clan for the Rouna impacted-area landowners stand united. We appeal to Koiari Resource Impact Area landowners to go back to their various clans to incorporate their land group so that the government can recognise the clan itself instead of seeing Koiari as many split groups thereby confusing the government and misleading people.
  • Koiari landowners should be mindful that there has been a lot of money given to us for land mobilisation and capacity buildings, yet there are no tangible projects along Sogeri Road all the way to rural Koiari villages.
  • Clan leaders and people of Koiari should use their own funds to incorporate their ILG as we the Rouna Omani clan did.

Rouna Omani clan
ILG group executives