Makap’s case dismissed

By GEORGINA KOREI
A COMMITTAL Court has thrown out conspiracy charges against Motor Vehicles Insurance Limited (MVIL) chief executive officer Michael Makap in Waigani due to lack of evidence.
Magistrate Albert Daniels ruled yesterday that the case against Makap, 61, from Kondo village, Hagen Central in Western Highlands be dismissed as there was no evidence from police linking him to the charges.
“Your case is discharged due to insufficient evidence provided by police and your bail is refunded,” he told Makap.
Daniels said Makap had fully complied with the court by assisting police in their duties when executing a search warrant to ensure that the vehicle was returned to its owner, Jack Tulia.
“There were no submissions made on the charge of conspiracy and no parties raised the issues of wrong wording on the charges when submissions were made,” he said.
“How can someone who is not in the beginning of all these situation be an alleged party to this?”
“His (Makap) affidavits stated clearly that he was not CEO in 2018 when the allegation of the vehicle transfer was made. He was appointed CEO on May 22, 2019 which was well after and assisted the police by providing evidence in the transfer of vehicle and ownership back to Tulia,” he said.
“Submissions made were for only the charge of conspiracy but it was irrelevant as he was appointed to the position after the events of the transfer of the vehicle.”
Meanwhile, Makap’s co-accused Piawi Laka, 51, from Rigo in Central was committed to stand trial in the National Court on Monday.
Out of court, Makap told The National that he was relieved that the court had thrown out his case as he had assisted and cooperated with police in their investigation.
Makap thanked the court for discharging him and added that he had his day in court and justice had been served.
Police alleged that Makap had failed to properly assist investigators to recover a stolen vehicle belonging to Tulia.
It was alleged that in doing so, Makap had attempted to pervert the course of justice and stall the police investigations.
Police also alleged that Makap committed other conspiracies, stating in their report that on Sept 26, 2022, after several failures to respond to police letters, Makap responded to a court order in providing documents required by police investigators which showed a false transaction of ownership of the stolen vehicle.
Police alleged that Makap and MVIL staffers Piawi Laka, Steven Kovingere, Mary Iso and Margrette Maxson abused the organisation’s vehicle management system by generating a fake identification of Tulia’s vehicle and used it to change the ownership to a Robert Manik.
In doing so, Makap and his staff misled the police investigations.
Makap was interviewed by National Fraud Squad on Nov 15, 2022, where it was revealed that he had failed to provide documents required by investigators and with Laka, illegally changing the ownership of Tulia’s vehicle.