Eviction

This comes as the second warning from the police and the squatters have been given up until July 10 to move out.

Police officers have reminded the squatters that since the court order was issued on April 9, 2024, the settlers were given a grace period of 120 days which will end on July 10.

Hugo Sawmill this morning sought police assistance to remove the group of people, mostly believed to be from the Hela Province. According to police people living there have been vending under the Erima Flyover Bridge and also around Gordon and Erima areas.

Records from Seven Mile and Gordons Police Station also confirmed that some of the petty crimes that took place around their area of operation were done by the people living there. 

The Port Moresby District Court dismissed the retirees' proceedings against the Commissioner of Police and the Management of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary on April 28, 2023.

The retirees had been served with notices to vacate their institutional houses at the Games Village Police Barracks after their separation from the Constabulary in September 2022.

Portion 354 at Malahang, in Lae, was the centre of a court proceeding that started in 2006 and finally came to a close on the 25^th of March, this year, when Justice Paulus Dowa ruled in favour of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG.

Settlers occupying that area were given four months to vacate the place; a period that lapsed on the 25^th of July, which saw the ELCPNG advise settlers of the deadline.

The evictees have now been repatriated to their home provinces.

The first 97 people who had resided in Section 21 in the town area departed Kimbe on Monday night on MV Ialibu to Lae. They are from the Morobe and Highlands provinces.

The second group of 200 left Kimbe on Wednesday night onboard MV Momase and arrived in Wewak yesterday. They are all from East Sepik Province.

The repatriation began this week following a court order issued by the Bialla National Court on May 19 2021.

Aora Avee and her family were forced by a group men, numbering 20, to vacate the home after the group claimed they had the title to the home, which is a National Housing Corporation property.

Quick intervention by Police from Badili saw the arrest of 13 perpetrators and stopped any further destruction.

Avee said in all her life, she had never experienced something so terrifying, when the armed men broke down the gate and began to destroy property and chase them out.

In 2014, the National Capital District Commission issued three months’ notice to occupants of the land, some of whom had been living there for more than 30 years.

The notice required them to demolish the houses and other structures they had erected on the land, to make way for construction of a new highway.

Lucy Agen and Cecilia Sam, along with their families, were allegedly forcefully removed by police yesterday from the two flats they had lived in for more than 30 years.

While many residents are celebrating in the comfort of their homes, the families currently sit outside the fence of what was home until yesterday, where fully armed police officers arrived in a convoy of vehicles and allegedly evicted them.

Starting from Nine-Mile out, settlers have been evicted in a number of eviction exercises carried over the year.

The most recent is the Lareva community, situated near the Rouna Quarry site.

Rumours of eviction have been rife in the area.

Meantime, North East member and Housing and Urbanisation Minister, John Kaupa, confirmed the rumours yesterday.

He said the area is a state land and a party has already purchased the portion of area.

Longtime residents, like Narshon Ita, however are appealing to the member.

Polye raised the question after the Post-Courier ran a story on its front page on Monday about a 94-year-old man evicted from his premises and left to camp out on the streets in the nation’s capital.

“The Prime Minister last month told Parliament that he had ordered the stop to the sale of all NHC owned houses, how come officers of NHC are continuing to sell properties?” Polye asked.

“This is an indication that PM and his housing minister have lost control of the NHC matters thus allowing corrupt officers to sell NHC owned houses at will,” he said.