Polye taking the next step.

Sacked Treasurer and Kandep MP Don Polye will be asking the court to declare the K3 billion loan as unconstitutional and seek orders for his reinstatement as Treasurer. In a press conference yesterday, Mr Polye, flanked by his lawyer John Napu, said he is going to the courts to seek justice because the whole loan smells “fishy” and was very suspicious. “I have filed the matter in court, seeking the honourable courts to declare this bad loan unconstitutional and illegal,” Mr Polye said.

“I am seeking also to have the fund recouped back to the State and have all arrangements for the loan to be cancelled so that the State is relieved of its liabilities to fix power, social services and outstanding infrastructure problems facing the people.’’ He alleged that the deal is getting more suspicious and complicated by two important dynamics. “Firstly, the French-owned company, Total SA, acquired a 40.1 percent share of the Elk/Antelope LNG project at US$401 million as against Oil Search’s acquisition of a 22.8 percent share at US$900 million of the same project,” Mr Polye said.

“The people demand to know the reasons for the huge disparity in prices. Certainly, the shareholders of Oil Search would want to know why their company (Oil Search) bought a lesser number of shares at a huge price when Total bought twice as many shares of the project at less than half the price. “Perhaps a responsible authority, public, private or both, should explain this mystery to the citizens of the nation. “Secondly, why has Oil Search filed a lawsuit against Total? The people need to know the background to these issues regarding the legal challenges that these two important investors in PNG have taken upon themselves. “Is it only a cover up over a dubious deal involving share price disparity to divert attention?”

Mr Polye said by going to the courts, all these will come out so that Papua New Guineans can know the truth. His lawyer explained that the second relief for his client to be reinstated as a minister and treasurer has never been put to the courts before. “This is unprecedented; normally we don’t see the courts do that because no minister has gone to court…that’s why we want to test this in the courts, we are asking the courts to reinstate him in the interim. The relationship between the prime minister and minister are not master servant relationship,” said Mr Napu. Meanwhile Mr Polye also applauded all state and learning institutions for taking a strong position against the K3 billion loan.

POST COURIER/ EM TV NEWS

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