After 26 days of mourning for their Governor, late Anderson Agiru, the people of Hela today laid their leader to rest.
He was buried at his mother’s village, Tapanda near the Dauli Teachers College in Tari.
Late Governor succumbed to heart attack on April 28, 2016 in Port Moresby and pronounced dead at the Pacific International Hospital.
Loop PNG has been covering the events from his death in Port Moresby, to Mendi, Southern Highlands and Hela, the province he was the captain of until his burial today.
Late Agiru was 54 years old.
He had been receiving treatment for kidney malfunction since June 2015.
Agiru was leader of the People’s United Assembly and first Governor of the new Hela Province.
He was first elected to Parliament in 1997 and became leader of the United Resources Party.
He became Governor of the Southern Highlands Province which at the time included Hela.
He later left the URP to form PUA.
He was re-elected as Southern Highlands Governor in the 2002 and 2007 National elections and following the separation of Hela from Southern Highlands in 2012, successfully contested elections the same year to become the inaugural Governor of Hela.
Late Agiru was instrumental in the Gulf-Southern Highlands road link; the move to create Hela Province and the development of the PNG LNG project among other projects.
As host Governor, Agiru will be remembered for his long hard fight to develop an LNG gas project onshore.
In 2002 when the PNG Government proposed piping PNG’s gas to Queensland, Australia, Agiru fought bitterly against government to establish an LNG project onshore.
He witnessed the Gas Agreement in 2008 and led the provincial governments and landowners team to the Umbrella Benefits Sharing Agreement in Kokopo in May 2009 and fought hard for equity, high impact infrastructure projects and other benefits accruing to landowners and provincial governments today.
He championed the drive for agro-industrial centres throughout Hela at a time when the attention of the rest of PNG was focused on the benefits deriving from the LNG Project. He helped drive infrastructure projects throughout the new province and was building the Hela Provincial Government headquarters building at the time of his death.
His death is a great loss to the people of Hela, Southern Highlands and PNG.
Agiru held a Masters in Business Administration and has served in various capacities for several ministers before entering Parliament.
He hails from Dauli outside Tari town.
He was married to Cathy Kakaraya, daughter of Sir Pato Kakaraya.
They have no children since their marriage up to his death.
Pictures by Philip Undialu