Leader calls for govt to recognise Ahi people

THE national government must recognise the Ahi people in Lae and include them to benefit from the more than K200 million promised for the city, John Ngandang says.
He said the government should compensate them as landowners of Lae city as ordered by the court years ago.
John Ngandang, the new chairman of the Ahi Land Mobilisation (ALM) programme, said they would claim the outstanding funding from the Morobe provincial government.
He said despite funding being budgeted every year they did not receive it from the provincial treasury.
Ngandang made the comments during the swearing-in ceremony of its board executives and committee members last Friday at the Ahi local level government centre.
“We are landowners without land,” Ngandang, who broke the silence of Ahi leaders to speak out over what his people saw as systematic neglect by successive governments, said.
He said the Ahi people in 36 clans from Yalu, Kamkumung, Butibam, Hengali, Yanga and Wangang did not own businesses and were not recognised as major players in the city’s commercial sector.
One of his committee’s priorities is to reclaim any unused Ahi traditional land in the city and stop any land deals between locals and developers, which did not complement their development plans.
He said securing funding was difficult and Ngandang thanked the Lae district administration for itP.
“It is the responsibility of the committee to plan and to do awareness in the six villages and their 36 clans, the programme belongs to the Ahi people,” he said.
“We will see the provincial lands division and fight to claim any unused traditional land and utilize available land, and my committee will stop any land deals which do not compliment the development plans of the ALM program,” Ngandang said.