T.H.E officials upset with ‘demotion’

By JEFFREY ELAPA
OFFICIALS of the Triumph Heritage Empowerment (T.H.E) Party have urged Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to give back the finance ministry to their leader Don Polye.
O’Neill this week took away the ministry from his coalition partner, who is also the leader of THE Party.
Party officials said it was Polye who made it possible for O’Neill to become prime minister last August after bringing across all the MPs loyal to him to form the government. O’Neill only has six MPs in parliament.
Polye and his MPs broke ranks with Sir Michael Somare and the National Alliance party to form the new government.
“We broke away from the National Alliance that ruled for nine years to support O’Neill and Namah with 22 members to fight corruption,’’ an official said.
The officials said O’Neill’s recent decision was a slap in the face for their party leader.
While they were aware of the pressure from coalition partners and members of the old regime on the prime minister, they said he should at least come to his senses and revisit the resolution passed at Sir Mekere Morauta’s Touaguba Hill house.
“We want the prime minister to rescind his decision because the allegations made against the party leader were baseless as there are processes in place to be followed before landowner funds are released.
“These are public funds and the prime minister should also understand where the fault is.”
Meanwhile, sources said as Polye was meeting his parliamentary members, O’Neill called him at 1.30pm from Vanimo to address the PNG LNG landowners gathered at Morauta House.