Lutheran Churches in court over land issues

THE Murip Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG has urged Melpa Lutheran Church not to come in and grab its land in the Mul/Baiyer district of Western Highlands.
Chairman of the Murip Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) Simon Doimb, who filed an appeal in the Mt Hagen District Land Court, told Magistrate Jacinta Doa that Melpa Lutheran Church (MLC) was a different church and could not come back into the territory of ELC.
Doimb told the court that the land that ELC stayed was given to the church in 1950 by the landowners.
He said the MLC registered as a different church and did not need to come back into the land owned by GLC.
He said these when making an appeal against the decision of the Mul land mediators on June 16 to give three-quarters of the land in Murip ELC’s ground to MLC.
Doimb told the court that the decision of the land mediators was “totally wrong” and not going down well with ELC members. He said that ELC would not give any land to MLC.
Land mediators Kewa Pena, Joseph Tetep, Wan Rumba, Rumba Kunjil, Wak Kaip, Pil Gau, and Kerua Roga initially heard the case and made the decision.
Five members present in the court changed their original decision and told the court that they had decided to give three-quarters of the land to ELC and one-quarter to MLC. The land mediators contradicted their earlier decision.
Magistrate Doa told the two parties to see the local land court clerk and meet the costs of land mediators, security officers, and court officials that would visit the disputed land for inspection on Oct 16.