Order for urgent application

By TREVOR WAHUNE
A JUDGE has ordered a case regarding disputes about a security contract for the Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre be brought before him today after he refused to hear an application by an investor on grounds that the application was yet to be served to the defendants.
Justice Derek Hartshorn, in the Waigani National Court on Friday, ordered local investor Tasion (Group) Ltd to lodge an urgent application today after it served documents to the defendants in the matter on Saturday by email or in person.
“The defendants are to be served the documents,” Hartshorn said.
The defendants in the matter are chief migration officer Solomon Kantha (first defendant), Minister for Immigrations Wesley Nukundj (second defendant), Immigration and Citizenship chairman David Manning (third defendant), Speaker and Manus MP Job Pomat (fourth defendant) and the State (fifth defendant).
The matter appeared by way of an urgent application filed by the Tasion Group of Companies through lawyer Koreken Levi, seeking to restrain all defendants that are alleged to be related to Pomat, and have threatened to remove assets, employees and shut out the plaintiffs (Tasion Group), who claim to have a valid service agreement to provide security on the transit centre.
According to Tasion Group’s application obtained by The National, Tasion claims to have a limited service agreement (LSA) that was negotiated and signed between Tasion and its Australian contractor (Paladin contract) earlier this year.
The application alleges that when the signing of the LSA was made known to a relative of Pomat, his relatives led a number of protests and demanded that the Tasion Group withdraws.
Tasion Group now alleges that the protests led by Pomat’s relatives prevented Tasion Group to perform the security tasks it signed up for through the LSA.