Morobe

Lae MP and Deputy Prime Minister, John Rosso, outlined the rundown state of the sporting facilities when presenting jerseys to the Lae City FC last week.

“I’ve written to the PNG Sports Federation to hand that stadium back to Lae City Authority so we can upgrade, maintain and run it for the city,” Rosso said.

“Right now, they are running it and there’s no maintenance and it’s really rundown.

It was the DPM’s first time to swing a golf club to officially open the range after the second day of the PNG Senior Open tournament.

After getting a few pointers from one of the Australian professionals, Rosso opened the driving range with a hit, followed by Lae Golf Club president, Phil Hommelhoff.

The opening paved the way for four of the pro golfers to compete for the K5,000 ‘longest straightest drive’.

Hommelhoff said the range has become a reality after being proposed three years ago.

Lae MP John Rosso raised this issue after seeing numerous comments regarding the flooding in the Top town area last week.

“If you are in Lae, we have experienced heavy rainfall day and night for the last few days and its excessive and above average,” he stated.

“The drainage is clogged up by people who have no regard and just throw rubbish on the streets.

“Road and drainage reserves have been occupied by unscrupulous people who have obtained land titles over these reserves, resulting in the Lae City Authority being unable to access them to work.

Internal Security Minister, Peter Tsiamalili Jnr, took the honour to officially launch the boat at Voco Point in Lae.

The Minister praised the efforts of Nawaeb District Development Authority through the chairmanship of Nawaeb MP, Theo Pelgen.

“The boat will enhance police operations along the coastline of your people and this is an innovative concept that will instil law and order to the community,” Tsiamalili stated.

Held on Saturday, August 5^th, and Sunday, August 6^th, the Rosso Cup event saw 1,200 competitors gather at the Lae Showgrounds to demonstrate their stamina and skills in their respective categories of children under 16, senior men and women and Person Living With Disability.

Due to time constraints, the senior men’s finals have been pushed to Saturday, August 12^th, including the corporate race.

With the gate fee set at K1 only, hundreds of residents entered the Showgrounds to cheer for their representatives.

Organised by the Morobe Province Agricultural Society, a non-profit organisation run by volunteers, the highly-popular Morobe Show began in 1959 and is poised to celebrate its 60^th diamond jubilee this year.

President of the show’s committee, Mike Quinn, said they have started having monthly meetings in preparation for the show. Their first meeting was on June 28^th while the second one was on July 2^nd.

He soon increased the pastors’ allocation to K10 million, saying they play an important role in extending God’s hand.

Since his announcement, women in the rural districts of Morobe have been getting scammed by people pretending to be from the Governor’s office.

Mothers and elderly women – most of whom are widows – have been pressured to pay over K30 each – by different groups – to benefit from the K5 million allocation.

Construction started in May and is almost complete.

“We have a K351,000 worth of project that we are going to put here,” said the manager of Ahi Hope Foundation, Willard Bogan.

“This is one of the major projects that is delivered from the K2.5 million dividend that was paid out recently from the Ahi Group of companies to our wealth distribution group.

“And so we’ve done the Yanga project for K351,000; we’ve got another water project up at Yalu – the Yalu bore water project.

“We’ve got a land mobilisation program that’s going on for Kamkumung village.

Around midday last Friday, 11 Pake Elementary School children – aged 4-8 – consumed bean that was taken from a local man’s garden.

From the 11, four passed away at the Poiyu aid post in the evening after vomiting for over an hour.

Officer-in-charge of the Aseki Health Centre, Sr Mathilda Maborai, has raised concern that the bean species needs to be officially identified by specialists, and the community needs to be made aware of it.

“A family from Aseki Station also ate the bean, but in small amounts,” said Sr Maborai.

Provincial Police Commander, Superintendent Jacob Singura, said they should not expect police only to maintain peace in their communities.

“This is my appeal to the people of Morobe and Lae city, police work is not only for police officers,” he stated.

“Maintaining peace and security is everyone’s responsibility.

“We all have to be working together.

“Respect is a two-way thing,” he further told his officers.

“If we respect the public, they will respect us.”