Leader questions move

 By MALUM NALU

SACKED Ok Tedi Mining Ltd (OTML) chairman Sir Mekere Morauta yesterday broke his silence on his removal and asked what Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s next move would be on legitimate businesses in the country.

“They (government) claim that they own all the shares, that they are the owners, so it (sacking) follows,” he told reporters.

“But it’s not over.

“They’ve expropriated by law.

“Expropriation is when someone passes a law to take away from someone else, his private assets without payment, and that’s what the prime minister has done to the people of Western.

“What’s he going to do next?”

Sir Mekere, who remains chairman of PNG Sustainable Deveopment Program (PNGSDP) Ltd, said O’Neill’s actions were driven by money.

“The law expropriating 63% of the shares of Western people and to take control of their savings in the long-term fund – these are the issues,” he said.

“These add up to K8.5 billion.

“He’s ‘nationalised’ it and now he wants to take control of PNGSDP.

“I want people to know that his motive is to get the State to get its hand on the K8.5 billion belonging to people of Western.

“I don’t know what the people of Western have done to him to deserve this.

“It seems the prime minister has lost all sense of propriety, equity and fairness.

“The prime minister and the State have no right to investigate the books of private companies.”