More than 400 evicted

By MIRIAM ZARRIGA
MORE than 400 settlers were forcefully evicted from a portion of land at 14-Mile, outside Port Moresby yesterday morning.
The land at 14-Mile on portion 1221, Milnich of Granville, Fourmile, Central, was cleared after the National Court, on July 15, removed interim restraining orders taken by the settlers on November 2018.
National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop confirmed the eviction saying the land belonged to NCD Commission.
“The land belongs to NCD, we have applied for it legitimately, it was a vacant land despite what the governor for Central claimed and we gave appropriate notices to the settlers there two years ago,” he said.
Parkop said the majority of settlers left with help from NCD, however, the eviction exercise was done on settlers who had occupied the land illegally in the last two years.
He said some of these settlers had bought the land from people claiming to be landowners.
According to documents obtained by The National, the 400 settlers claimed that Portion 1221 was customary land and they had bought pieces from customary landowners in 2012, and had built their homes on the land.
The land was mortgaged to the Bank of South Pacific but Ilimo Farm defaulted in its financial obligations to the bank and so the bank exercised its powers under the mortgage and sold the land to the Central government.
The Central government got the title but failed to comply with the lease conditions and, thereby, the land was forfeited to the State by the then minister for lands, the land became State land in March of 2012.
In March of 2018, the land was granted to NCDC through a direct grant.
In September 2018, the Lands Department issued a notice to all persons occupying Portion 1221.
The notice was issued under the Section 145 of the Land Act and allowed for 21 days for persons to vacate the land.
Parkop said the notice to vacate was delivered to all settlers on the portion by the NCDC enforcement team and police.
The plaintiffs (settlers), however, took the matter to court and filed two court proceedings.
In November 2018, the National Court granted interim orders to restrain NCDC from evicting the settlers; these orders were obtained ex-parte by the plaintiffs.
In July, after the matter had been in the National Court for two years, the court dismissed both matters which in turn removed the interim restraining orders.
Parkop said the NCDC had applied to develop Adventure park and to build a cultural park.
“We applied to develop Adventure Park and build a cultural park,” he said.
“Cultural Park fits into our plan for tourism development, to make NCD a tourism destination.
“We are mini Papua New Guinea, we want to have a one-stop shop that tourists, when they come, come and see PNG in one spot.”
The National was at the site yesterday morning, those affected threatened to block the road, however, they were stopped from doing so.