PM O'Neill should submit to law : Morauta

Prime Minister Peter O'Neill 

Former Prime Minister Sir Mekere says “Prime Minister Peter O’Neill should allow the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate to take up his challenge to find whether there is evidence or not that he benefitted financially from the Paraka scandal,”

“He should also allow them to continue their wider investigation into all aspects of the case, and he should assist their enquiries by presenting himself to Director Matthew Damaru and his colleagues for questioning.

“Mr O’Neill has boasted that he knows the facts surrounding the case, and who benefitted financially. “He has a duty to reveal that to the Fraud Squad.”

In a media release and in Parliament the Prime Minister challenged the authorities to ‘show evidence of him benefiting financially or otherwise and he will resign.’

The choice is clear – either he cooperates with the police or he resigns. He has left himself no other option, Sir Mekere said.

“It is in the national interest for him to do so. It is not in the national interest for the Office of the Prime Minister to be used to hide from truth and justice.

“There is a clear public interest in settling this sordid affair, and the only person preventing this is the Prime Minister.”

Sir Mekere said Mr O’Neill cannot continue to be a fugitive from justice, on the run from a court-sanctioned arrest warrant, surrounded by heavily armed police way in excess of his Prime Ministerial allocation.

The Prime Minister is in no personal danger whatsoever – the only reason for his over-the-top personal security is to evade arrest.

It sets a bad example to the rest of the nation, and is also casting Papua New Guinea in a very bad light internationally.

The Police Commissioner, Mr Gary Baki, also has a role to play in settling the matter honorably and lawfully, and easing the tensions he and the Prime Minister have created.

Press Release