Landowner faction stones office for missing out on royalty payment

By DOROTHY MARK
A faction of a clan that missed out on the recent Ramu nickel royalty distribution stoned the company’s glass house headquarters in Madang on Friday.
Members of the Giuye Nogoi Yowor Omowo clan stormed into Ramu Nickel headquarters and threw stones at the three-storey glass building.
They broke the glass door at the main entrance and damaged the conference and tea rooms.
At the carpark, they broke the wind screens of several company vehicles.
Joe Koroma, of Guiye Nogoi Yowo Omowo clan, of Kurumbukari special mining lease block one, was supposed to have claimed a share of the royalty for the Baura family.
He stormed Ramu Nickel headquarter and demanded their payment last month after waiting for four months.
Koroma did it again on Friday.
He said a Land Titles’ Commission hearing held between 2011 and 2013 declared that the dividend of a 5 per cent share of the royalty was to be paid to a man and his wife.
Both had died.
He said the LTC decision said the 5 per cent dividend was to be distributed between three families.
According to Koroma, the Mineral Resources Authority went ahead and paid two families while the share of Koroma and his family was held back.
He said some of their clan members had taken the LTC decision to the National Court.
Koroma said it was not fair that the other two families received their share while their share was withheld. Ramu Nickel vice-president Wang Bowen said the company did its part and paid out the royalty and it was now up to MRA and Government authorities to facilitate the distribution to clans.
“We want to help you and work with you,” he said. “We have done our part in paying out the royalty already.”