One of the 25 student leaders whose appeal was successful before the UPNG Appeals Committee has expressed his gratitude at the committee for going in their favour.
Livai Kuaken is a final year Law student who was amongst those 25 student leaders who was permanently excluded from studies in August for his alleged involvement in the boycotting of classes at the University of Papua New Guinea.
He completed his first semester exams this week and is thankful to the Appeals committee for quashing the university’s decision. Others are still sitting their exams.
“On behalf of the other student leaders we are thankful. I want to say a big thank you to the UPNG Appeals Committee. All our appeals are successful and we say a very big thank you to the Public Solicitors office, most importantly to our teams and our lawyer Ramsey Pariwa for giving his best for our case,” Kuaken said.
He said the Appeals Committee basically looked into the nature of the allegations against the students.
The primary ground on which they dismissed the case was that there was an error in the action of Pro-VC to invoke his powers to terminate them when the circumstance did not warrant a termination.
He also said there was no evidence on the allegations that were listed against the students.
”They did not specify the allegations against the students. We were not even charged,” he added.