Sepik landowners await start of SABL inquiry

LANDOWNERS in the Special Agriculture Business Lease (SABL) areas of East Sepik are anxiously waiting for the Commission of Inquiry to begin in the province.
Gabriel Molok, director of the Turubu Eco-Forestry Development Programme Inc wanted the Commission to explain to them why it has delayed its work in the province.
Molok said landowners in the four SABL areas in the province were ready to give their views and had travelled from afar to take part in the inquiry which had been deferred.
He said enough money was allocated for the inquiry to carry out its investigations into the SABLs in the province.
Molok said there had been no official explanation on the delay.
He urged the minister for lands to revoke all the SABLs in the province which he said the landowners were going to challenge in court to get back their land titles.
Maria Sori, a landowner in the Turubu local level government area, said it was unfair that the commission had delayed the inquiry in Turubu.
She said local landowners were not happy because the SABLs granted were to the disadvantage of the landowners and they wanted this revoked.
Sori said the national government must explain the cause of the delay.