Leaders to take legal action

National, Normal

THE Kikori Oil Pipeline Landowners Association (KOPLA) and Omati Landowners Association (OLA) of Kikori are planning to take legal action against Governor Havila Kavo for defamatory remarks published in The Sunday Chronicle newspaper.
KOPLA executive Bomsy Boviro and OLA chairman Riddler Kimave are upset that Mr Kavo had branded “some of our members as crooks”.
“For parliamentarians to interfere with landowner affairs is very shallow and we ask politicians in our province to keep out of landowners issues,” they said.
They are now planning to commence defamatory proceedings in the National Court against Mr Kavo and The Sunday Chronicle.
They were reacting to a paid advertisement put out by Mr Kavo in The Sunday Chronicle alleging that MoA funds for projects along the Kikori pipeline corridor were paid to illegitimate landowners.
“The statement by Governor Kavo is damaging and defamatory in nature,” Mr Kimave, a former Gulf governor and Kikori MP, said.
The executives said: “Our books are open for audit and we welcome the call by the Governor for a commission of inquiry.”