East Sepik Province

Agri programme finalizes contracts

The road rehabilitation and specific maintenance provides improved access for the rural population in the Greater Sepik Region of 12,430.

The programme also reported the achievement of 40% physical progress in implementation of six (6) ongoing road rehabilitation and specific maintenance contracts in partnership with PNG UniTech.

China man to be deported

According to East Sepik Provincial Police Commander Superientenat Christopher Tamari the Chinese Businessman namely Tuan Chen who owns the King's Club near the Old Airstrip near Nuiguo was arrested and charged with having in his possession of an unlicensed firearm.

Tamari said on December 11, 2021, he was arrested and charged under Section 27 (1) (a) of the Firearms Act, Chapter 310. He further added that on December 16, 2022, Chen appeared at the Wewak District court and was convicted by the court.

Yangoru-Saussia tops PNG

The district produced over 9, 000 metric tons of cocoa last year, 2022, which amounts to 20 percent of PNG’s cocoa produced in one district.

Member for Yangoru-Saussia and Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru thanked his people for their efforts and hard work in becoming the biggest cocoa producing district in the country. Minister Maru assured his people that Yangoru-Saussia district will invest more in cocoa this year.

Police investigate Yawasoro killing

East Sepik provincial police commander Superintendent Albert Beli said that the late Kufai was attacked in his own house by a known suspect brandishing a bush knife. Kufai allegedly died from blood loss after the suspect severely cut him in his lower left leg. Police alleged that Kufai’s attacker was intoxicated when he committed the crime.

Road to connect Boikin and Dagua LLGs

Led by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Banak-Wautogik road is one of two roads that will support farming communities involved in cocoa, vanilla, and fisheries production to access further markets with more rewarding prices, and open up rural communities for agribusiness opportunities.

Straight after the unveiling, local firm Hiawani Ltd who has been awarded the contract started with grading and clearing of the initial roads section.

Border Command Quiet

Deputy Divisional Commander for Border Command, Chief Superintendent Sibron Papoto, said there were less or no reports of election-related incidents in the provinces, known as the border commands.
He said all these provinces have completed polling and are now into extraction of ballot boxes and into counting.
 
Wewak, Angoram, Wosera-Gawi and Ambunti-Drekikier are still in counting at their respective districts except for Ambunti-Drekikier, which is being counted in Maprik. Counting for the regional seat is at Moem Barracks, Wewak. 
 

Maprik Electorate Elimination

As of this morning, quality checks were progressing for Maprik electorate for each LLG with elimination expected tomorrow. Five LLGs have completed their quality checks with elimination expected after Count number two later today.

The five LLGs of Maprik district are: Maprik Urban, yet for quality check; 2. Maprik Wora LLG also yet to check for quality, 3. Yamil Tamaui LLG is second LLG, currently doing the quality check after Albiges Mamblep LLG, which was the first to go into quality checks yesterday.

Bird In Comfortable Lead

Here are the top five contenders for the East Sepik Regional Seat.

  1. Allan Bird – NA – 25, 077
  2. Waiyu Kenny Samuel – MAP – 10, 865
  3. Tony James Walwal – PNGP – 2118
  4. Michael M Somare Jnr – Independent – 1434
  5. Louis Koinduo – Independent – 1146

ESP To Begin Counting Soon

Ulapapia said 48 teams for Wewak are ready for counting, Maprik counting hopefully begins tomorrow, Wosera-Gawi expects the last team to return to their hub today, Ambunti-Drekikir will extract its last teams by today and the expect all teams for Yangoru-Saussia to return today.

He said East Sepik plans to start counting on Thursday 14 July.

PRO Ulapapia also mentioned that a court injunction was taken out by scrutineers and candidates for Wewak Open, against the decision of the Wewak Open Returning Officer’s choice of venue for counting.  

ESP Polling Runs Smoothly

Since the commencement date of polling on Tuesday 05th, there had been a lot of delays and waiting for many reasons, one being the late delivery of fuel for all modes of transportation, bad weather, and unavailability of a chopper to transport polling teams to remote East Sepik.

These were some of the concerns raised by both the Election Manager and the Provincial Returning Officer on behalf of presiding officers and polling teams.