By Joe Gurina
VICE Minister for Treasury and MP for Kairuku Hiri Peter Isoiamo is seeking government intervention to protect customary land rights from illegal land grabbing deals in the electorate. Isoaimo made his intentions known at a recent landowner meeting at Akuku ward in the Vanapa Brown LLG in the Hiri district of Central province. Isoiamo is a member to the Doura- Koiari landowner association incorporated last year to address land issues in the area. He said the concerned landowners were deprived of their land rights overpowered by illegal land deals. He said he would refer the matter to the Land Department to rectify and assess the case if it needs further legal actions to be taken on the matter. Akuku is the last community of the Doura-Koiari tribe and are descendants of the Motu tribe along the coastline of central province. Isoaimo said two or three portions of land, ‘’in my view were taken illegally’’. ‘’In my last meeting two weeks ago with the landowner party, we discussed at length how best we could acquire those portions of land for and on behalf of the two existing clans so they have security for land usage going into the future,” he said. He said under the land act, any land block holder who does not show course in developing portions of their land after certain period of time, the Lands Department forfeits the titles and recoup the land. ‘’I as your political leader, I have to find answers. Land issue is the number one priority and the Doura- Koiari landowner association, we need to find out the best way to fix Oaire and Koabata land issue for Akuku village than everything else falls in,’’ he said. “All this houses here are standing on somebody’s land. They will kick you off anytime they want and that is a big problem for me as your political leader. You are sitting on a time bomb where the future generation of this village will be jeopardized.” He appealed to the two clans not to take the issue lightly and encouraged them to work with him and solve the problem at the earliest.
