A Joint District Planning and Budget Priorities Committee meeting in Madang was prematurely ended last Friday after disgruntled LLG presidents and local villagers stormed a hotel conference room and ordered the Chairman to immediately stop the meeting.
The drama occurred at Madang Lodge around midday when the presidents of Iabu and Yawar Local Level Governments in the Bogia District, together with some 50 plus people of Bogia entered the conference room and ordered that the meeting be stopped as they were not advised of it nor were they included, as required by the law. The meeting, chaired by the Member for Bogia, John Hickey was blamed of deliberately leaving out the two L-L-G presidents, Peter Bariau of Yawar and Michael Ururu of Iabu. A war of words between Mr Hickey and the two presidents ensued for about 45 minutes, with the angry people interjecting several times telling off their Member of Parliament his failure to deliver important government services to the district in ten plus years that he had been their voice in parliament. The angry presidents and the mob of disgruntled local villagers forced the meeting to stop and demanded an explanation from Member Hickey as to why he had left them out of the important district meeting. The Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Government requires all LLG presidents to be members of the JDP and BPC, however, Mr Hickey in his direct response to the two presidents bluntly told them that it was his prerogative to decide who sits in his JDP and BPC meetings. Last Friday’s meeting was the first for Bogia for this year and also the first since the swearing- in of the new LLG presidents following the 2013 LLG election. Comments are closed.
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