Man facing forgery, fraud charges

By BOURA GORUKILA
A 65-YEAR-OLD man charged with fraudulently uttering and forging meeting notices of an incorporated land group (ILG) appeared before Waigani Committal Court Magistrate Tracy Ganaii yesterday.
Kerry Duku, of Waloa village in Erave, Southern Highlands, was charged with one count of fraudulently uttering and one count of forgery of Andai ILG meeting notices at Unagi Oval in Port Moresby.
It was alleged that on Nov 6, 2007, Duku fraudulently uttered a meeting notice dated Oct 31, 2007, and declared non Andai ILG members as legitimate members and forged the document dated Sept 1, 2019, so that it could be acted upon as genuine.
Duku has been the chairman of the Andai ILG since 2003 and while in that position had conducted various meetings outside the set guidelines without the knowledge of the legally elected members.
He was alleged to have written a letter to a non-member, Warea Yawake, to conduct a meeting and acted as a member of the ILG.
This was not accepted by the legal members and caused infighting in the group.
They alleged that Duku’s actions contributed to them missing out on the Andai clan royalty benefits from the PNG LNG development grants and other State payments.
They said in the midst of the confusion, up to K600,000 of Andai royalty payments had been misused and diverted because Duku continued to defy directions and ignore his own board members.
Andai clan is a clan in the Gobe oil project area. A complaint was laid and the matter was under investigation for some time until Duku’s arrest on March 20.
He was charged and released on K1,000 police bail.
The matter returns on July 2.