Bewani Oil Palm under scrutiny
The executive for the Bewani Palm Oil Development Limited has been summoned before the Commission of Inquiry to give evidence tomorrow as the SABL holding entity’s secretary. Mr Tom Sirae, who is the Company Secretary, will also be required to inform the Commission as to whether there was any public hearings held to obtain Landowners consensus on whether Portion 106C could be converted into an SABL. The portion of land is situated in the Oenake Milinch (SW) & (SE) Bewani (NW) & (NE) and Fourmil of Vanimo in the West Sepik Province and covers a total of 139,909 hectares of land. The SABL was granted on July 11, 2008 and gazetted on July 14, 2008 and was delineated on a Class 4 survey plan. This SABL is one of several from the West Sepik Province and evidence given by former Lands Secretary Pepi Kimas suggests that due process was not followed before it was granted. Mr Kimas, appeared last week and gave testimony that he had been ‘pressured’ by three prominent politicians into si