A group of concerned customary landowners of Kone Karu land boundary of the Papa village, near the LNG site plant, stopped contractors from Curtain Brothers who were doing earth moving on their land.
Concerned landowner Vani Koiari told this newsroom that they noticed the area had been fenced some weeks ago and later this week saw contracted workers of curtain brothers move in to do the earth works.
Yesterday (April 20) morning, work came to a standstill for the contractors as some landowners of the Kone Karu land border walked into the fenced area to stop the excavators from removing any more mangroves and grassland from the area.
Koiari said this was their customary land used for gardening and they were not aware of any deals taking place on their land.
He said they launched a complaint at the Department of Lands Fraud and Complaints Unit after noticing the fence being erected around the land and they are still waiting for a response.
They believe they know who is behind this move, pulling the strings, and are calling on these individuals to come forward and have a discussion with them before they can move on to the next stage.
“At the moment, no more contractors are allowed in this area and we have made the first move by removing the fence that was erected to block off any trespassers.”
The Kone Karu landowners stressed that they want things to be done in the right way with their consultation, adding that those who are behind this are not the real landowners as they had never shown any form of documentation that they had any right to the land.
“They are not the real landowners,” they added.
