Chief Justice in trouble waters

CHIEF Justice (CJ) Sir Gibbs Salika has left his office for an indefinite period due to court cases that implicates him, Minister for Justice and Attorney General Pila Niningi says.Sir Gibbs took leave from office after his daughter Gloria Salika with Labour and Immigration Minister Bryan Kramer were respectively committed to appear before the National Court on two separate cases.Gloria has been committed to stand trial before the National court on a total of 83 counts of fraud-related charges. These charges were related to the misappropriation of K268 million by the Ok Tedi Fly River Development Foundation Ltd and Young and Williams Lawyers.And Kramer has been suspended and will appear before a Leadership Tribunal for posting comments on Facebook that offended Sir Gibbs.Mr Niningi said: The Chief Justice, in observance of those fundamental principles and values will take leave of absence from office from the date of the commencement of the criminal trial proper of daughter Gloria Salika and from the date of the commencement of the proceedings proper of the Leadership Tribunal of Bryan Kramer, Madang MP and Minister for Labour and Immigration until the determination of the two maters.”Niningi said that the Deputy Chief Justice Sir Ambeng Kandakasi will be the acting as Chief Justice and if he is unavailable a senior judge will be acting CJ.Sir Gibbs has lodged a formal complaint on Nov 11 2019 with the police and the Ombudsman Commission against then Police Minister Bryan Kramer. Sir Gibbs wanted the police and Ombudsman Commission to investigates a post in October 2019 on Kramers Facebook page.The post was found on Kramers Facebook page soon after the National Court on Oct 16 2019 issued an interim stay order on the arrest warrant issued by a lower court against former Prime Minister Peter ONeill.Sir Gibbs complained that Kramers posted articles on his Facebook page account relating to his (Sir Gibbs) role in referring a matter for Justice Nicholas Miviri to deal with in relation to an application for interim stay of a warrant of arrest by the Waigani District Court to arrest the Honorable Peter ONeill. Sir Gibbs complained that Kramers article on the Facebook page is inciting trouble or tending to cause trouble or ill-feeling among people.Also, Sir Gibbs took leave from office because his daughter Gloria was committed by the Waigani Committal Court on the 05th May 2022 to stand trial before the Waigani National Court. Gloria who was a former Young and Williams Lawyers counsel was committed to stand trial in the National Court for 83 counts of fraud-related charges. Gloria, 39, from South Flys Kulakea village in Western was committed to stand trial on 26 counts of misappropriation, 28 counts of money laundering, 27 counts of false pretense and two counts of conspiracy to defraud. She was accused of facilitating with the Australia New Zealand Bank employees to transfer K15 million from the Western peoples dividend trust account from the bank to Young and Williams Lawyers Bank account between Aug 1 and Aug 30, 2018,On Aug 19, 2020, North Fly MP James Donald lodged a complaint to the Police Commissioners office alleging that the K15 million and several other transfers totaling K268 million was transacted under false pretense and alleged that the sum of K268 million was misappropriated by the Ok Tedi Fly River Development Foundation Ltd and Young and Williams Lawyers.The K268 million was for funding development projects within the community mine construction agreement.