Threats slammed

 PORT Moresby-based Gobe landowners have been asked to stop making public statements and threats without the consent of legitimate landowners in Gobe, Southern Highlands.

Sowolo Haporo Pake ILG company chairman Peter Wasape said from Gobe that the call to shut down the Gobe oilfields by Jerome Kairi was not in the best interest of landowners.

Kairi had made a recent media claim that landowners of Gobe would join other landowners from Hides, Angore and Juha to shut down the project if their demands were not met.

Wasape said Kairi was not a legitimate landowner and did not own any land at the Gobe main oil and gas project site.

“Kairi should refrain from making such statements, particularly in the media,” he said.

He said Kairi was a Port Moresby resident  and should not claim to speak on behalf of landowners at home.

“He is speaking out of his conscience to threaten the project and worse, he is not a landowner,” Wasape said.

“Since day one, we have lived in the village and not in Port Moresby like him,” Wasape said.

He said that whatever Port Moresby-based landowners wanted to say using the media should be done in consultation with the people at home as it could contradict what the people wanted.

Wasape said that any frustration against the state and the developer must be done in consultation with landowner chiefs.