People call on Agiru to honour vow

By RIGGO NANGAN
SOUTHERN Highlands Governor Anderson Agi­ru must fulfil a commitment he made to build a road, according to the people of the Imbonggu-Poropa local level go­vernment in Imbonggu.
Imbonggu-Poropa LLG ward one councillor Samuel Mambu made the call after several failed attempts by councillors and people from the LLG for Agiru to honour his commitment.  
Mambu said that Agiru made the commitment in 2009 at a ground-breaking ceremony at Terend village for the reconstruction of the Katul-Piambel road, the lifeline for about 30,000 people in the area.
The groundbreaking ceremony was witnessed by provincial MPs Francis Awesa (Imbonggu) and Francis Potape (Komo-Margarima), executives of the provincial administration and the contractor Maga Investments Ltd.
Mambu said most of the 30,000 people, from 12 council wards of which four were from Ialibu ba­sin and eight from Im­bonggu-Poropa, witnes­s­ed the ceremony.
He said since then, nothing had eventuated.
Mambu said the Katul-Piambel road was the old highway for all services into and out of Southern Highlands while the stretch of highway between Togoba, in Western Highlands and Ialibu junction in Southern Highlands, was under construction. 
Mambu, who is ser­ving his second term as councillor of Ward One, said that the people were irked by another road project in Mendi, the Karints road, having been implemented while the  Katul-Piambel was still pending.
He said that if Aigiru did not have the time, he should allocate the money and let the people carry out the work themselves.
He said people could cut trees to build bridges and provide their private tipper trucks to move gravel.
“The people blessed the governor when he made the commitment but many of them have now lost hope in him,” Mambu said.