Tuguba chief wants gas money settled immediately

By JEFFREY ELAPA
THE paramount chief of the Tuguba tribe in Southern Highlands has renewed calls for the government to honour its LNG commitments and pay landowners their infrastructure and impact project development grants.
Lulu Aliabi said it seemed that the government had forgotten the plight of the simple people and was hell-bent on benefitting fully from the oil and gas projects in the province.
“The landowners are only claiming a fraction of what the government and the developers will get.
“My people, who are the legitimate landowners, have lost their land, gardens, houses and hunting grounds to the gas project,” he said.
Aliabi said so far, paper landowners from as far as Kandep, Tigibi, Wabia and Tari had been benefiting.
“The national government is doing a wonderful job but it must not frustrate the gas landowners.”