Lawyer hits back at mafia claims

By LEONNIE WAYANG-SEVUA
A LAWYER in Lae, Morobe, has hit back at a claim there is an alleged group, dubbed the ‘Siassi mafia’, working with the Evangelical church of Papua New Guinea.
That came after Fight Corruption Group chairman Steven Mol alleged there was a group called the Siassi mafia that was wrongly advising and misleading church council members.
Lawyer Kenneth Aisi questioned what standing Mol had in the church and what authority he had to make such claims.
“Eric Kua, who has been mentioned in the allegation, has been providing his knowledge as a lawyer to serve the church.
It is unbecoming to make allegations against him and to refer to us the people of Siassi as mafia,” Aisi said.
He said many people from Siassi had been serving as pastors in many Lutheran churches nationwide and many had been working in providing health and education services.
“So many of us Siassi people have been serving the nation through various vocations and it is wrong to call us mafia,” he said.
Aisi said Siassi people should not be referred to as “mafia” because those in the mafia were criminals and Siassi people were not criminals.
“We have prominent people in the likes of former church secretaries Ruben Kuri and Isaac Theo, who are from Siassi and have served the Lutheran church.”