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Monday, August 15, 2011

Cases against government thrown out

By JEFFREY ELAPA

THE court proceeding taken against the Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and his deputy Belden Namah by the former forest minister Timothy Bonga and national president of the National Alliance party Simon Kaiwi has been withdrawn, The National reports.
The parties named in the proceeding were O'Neill, Belden Namah, Bulolo MP Sam Basil, Hagen MP William Duma, Speaker Jeffery Nape and Attorney- General Dr Allan Marat.
O'Neill told reporters that Bonga and Kaiwi filed a notice to withdraw the Supreme Court judicial reference last Tuesday but the reason for the withdrawal had not been made known.
Court documents were filed at the court registry last week and the matter is expected to be withdrawn officially in court today.
Late last week, O'Neill said: "So far there is no case before my government after the previous Supreme and National court references by Abal have been thrown out.
"It was obvious that 70 members have supported me for a change of government, therefore, there was no need for any court cases," he said.
However, when asked about another court proceeding taken by the East Sepik provincial executive council for a judicial constitutional reference,  O'Neill said he was never served any copy of the proceeding and, therefore, he was not aware of it.
He said he only learnt of it in the media.
But to date he was satisfied that there was no pending case against his government after the two previous supreme court interpretation proceedings had been thrown out.
He said his ministers were starting to settle into their new ministries and he was confident all would go well in the next nine months.
He said his government was serious about addressing corruption and maintaining good governance.
Meanwhile on the issue of the Manus asylum seekers detention centre, O'Neill said the NEC had approved the request by the Australian government.
He said a delegation will be flying into PNG to talk about setting up the centre and signing a memorandum of agreement.
He said as a signatory to the Bali agreement on human smuggling, PNG had to work with neighbouring countries like Australia to counter human and drug-smuggling as a security issue in the region.

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