29 Dec 2005

Provincial officials in PNG set to defy governor by evicting settlers

6:13 am on 29 December 2005

The Morobe administration in Papua New Guinea is understood to be defying the provincial governor Luther Wenge by going ahead with the eviction of more than 3-thousand settlers outside Lae city.

The newspaper, The National, reports the people must leave their shanties today or be evicted.

The Morobe administrator has decided to carry out the eviction despite an announcement last week by the governor, Luther Wenge that the eviction had been halted.

Senior officials charged with the responsibility of carrying out eviction orders were quoted as saying that the Land Act empowered the administrator to issue eviction notices to people illegally occupying state land.

The officials said the governor had no authority to deal with such matters.