East Sepik Governor

He made the comments during the donation of K50,000 from Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited (KPHL) yesterday.

Governor Bird received a cheque from KPHL Managing Director, Wapu Sonk, towards relief efforts for the aftermath of the Kadovar Island volcanic eruption.

Sonk said KPHL, being the national oil and gas company, has a social responsibility to all Papua New Guineans and obligated to help the people of Kadovar at this time of need.

Governor Bird thanked Sonk for the donation and said the level of support received has been overwhelming.

Governor Allan Bird noted an overwhelming response from all over the country to assist in the plight of the East Sepik people.

He said among the donors, the National Capital District Commission has been the most significant with a K100,000 donation on Wednesday (Jan 17).

Others who have also assisted were the Prime Minister’s office and National Gaming Control Board.

Governor Bird was also overwhelmed at the set-up of the NCDC tents at the City Hall car park, noting that this is indeed a heart touching response led by the NCDC office.

East Sepik Governor Allan Bird yesterday received the 50 bales of 1kg rice from Trukai's district sales marketing manager, Caspar Jeffrey.

The rice, as well as 200 cartons of bottled water, will be shipped out to Ruprup (Blup Blup) Island, where the Kadovar people have taken refuge.

The naval ship from the Lombrum Naval base in Manus has since been delivering relief supplies, and will do so again today.

Governor Bird will travel to Ruprup Island today (Jan 13) to see the distribution of the rest of the relief supplies.

Today, East Sepik Governor Allan Bird told media that no casualties have been reported, but food and water on Blup Blup are diminishing because of the extra number of people.

While the focus today was to get food and water out to Blup Blup, Governor Bird said the most immediate plan is the get all Kadovar islanders to the mainland, to make relief assistance easier, and to plan a way forward to have them permanently resettled there.

Apparently the ship was on its way to Germany for destruction but was hijacked and stolen somewhere between Indonesia and West Sepik waters.

Governor Bird claimed that these notes are now being sold in Indonesia at a 75% discount.

He raised the alarm after reliably informed by sources that the notes are now selling in Indonesia especially at the border.

He explained that to prevent money laundering in the country, persons with more than K300,000 cannot deposit such amounts into the system.

Bird made the call during Telikom PNG’s launching of its 3G/4G LTE network services in East Sepik.

He said Telikom needed to continue to make affordable its products and services to all market segments.

“We want reliable service, a service with reasonable rates charged, a rate when you charge, is fair. We do not want rates that will change after two months… don’t do this.”

The new services will allow improved calling, SMS and internet services through Telikom’s latest mobile network.

This has angered East Sepik Governor Allan Bird and 22 other leaders in the province, who had voted unanimously for Dr Malau to take up the provincial administrator’s post.

Speaking to the media on Friday, Governor Bird said his administration had gone through the correct process to nominate Dr Malau.

“I believe the members of the NEC were misled, the first thing they were told is that candidate we chose was not a Papua New Guinean citizen,” says the Governor.

The World Bank and IFAD, are financing Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project (PPAP) implementing cocoa and coffee rehabilitation with lead partners and farmers in the country including the hinterland of East Sepik.

The delegation travelled to East Sepik on Monday along the Sepik highway to check the status of rehabilitation activities especially setting up of nurseries at project sites in Maprik and Yangoru districts.

It was an opportunity for farmers to share issues involving the project with the mission members.