Wenge: Luship will not be sold

 THE assets of Lutheran Shipping, especially vessels and wharves, will not be sold.

Head Bishop of Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea Giegere Wenge made the announcement yesterday in Lae in the company of Morobe Governor Kelly Naru and Nawaeb MP Gisuwat Siniwin.

Naru and Siniwin, both prominent Lutherans, supported the stance by the head of the church following rumours that Luship, managed under the church’s business arm Kambang Holdings, is being sold bit by bit.

Wenge said for more than 100 years, the services of the church through its shipping services had benefited generations of Lutherans and other Papua New Guineans.

“This is not true, The Lutheran church did not sell its assets in Luship,” Wenge said, but he admitted that there was a management tussle between different parties. 

“When Luship’s service was jeopardised, people were affected as far as Manus who depended on its services,” he said.

Siniwin gave assurance that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill was also concerned about the worsening state of Luship and its management problems and would step in to assist in bailing out the shipping company but wanted the conflicting parties to sort themselves out.  

Naru, in a press statement over the weekend, said the church had already sold its shares in Consort Shipping and some of the ships had gone into private hands and they could not let that happen to the Luship as it belonged to two million Lutherans of Papua New Guinea.