Two men accused of locking out administrator appear in court

TWO former senior public servants with the West Sepik administration accused of locking out provincial administrator Conrad Tilau from his office appeared in court, senior Magistrate Sasa Inkung says
Linus Wampia, 54, from Warapu village, Aitape, West Sepik, and Albert Mutumap, 48, from Miamin village, Teleformin, West Sepik, had allegedly nailed wood on Tilau’s office door in Vanimo last Dec 8.
They appeared at the Vanimo District Court charged with obstructing Tilau from carrying out his duty.
They had allegedly locked out Tilau, accusing him of failing to renew their contracts.
They are now out on K500 bail each and will appear before the same court next Friday.
Magistrate Inkung said Wampia and Mutumap were among six divisional directors of the West Sepik administration who had locked Tilau out over their termination.
They suspected that Tilau had deliberately delayed their contract agreement signing and so the due date for their contracts to be submitted to Department of Personnel Management had lapsed.
They also called for Tilau to come and address them at the administration building’s car park so that the public could know the reason for their termination.
At that time of their protest, Tilau was on duty travel to Teleformin.