PNG Prime Minsiter slams resign calls
PNG PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill has branded the calls by sacked Cabinet ministers Kerenga Kua (left) and Don Polye (right) for him to resign as “self-serving”.
The two had urged O’Neill to resign following a move by police last to question him over the payment of K78.1 million in legal fees to Paul Paraka Lawyers.
The issue is before the court.
O’Neill said in a statement yesterday: “Kua and Polye have no mandate to make that call.
“I was mandated by the people to be the head of this government.
“If Kerenga or Polye want the mandate, they have to earn it from the people at the polls or Parliament,” O’Neill said.
“It is self-serving. All issues Kerenga is raising to justify his call are decisions of the Cabinet, not by one man, and he knows that.
“Polye’s bantering is nothing new.
“He’s been doing that since I decommissioned him as minister.”
He said Kua and Polye were allowing their emotion to influence their outbursts.
“Kerenga and others making these calls must know that I do not have any intention to resign.”
On Sir Michael Somare’s call (on Radio New Zealand) for him to step aside, O’Neill said “this mess was created during his (Somare’s) time” and he was only cleaning it up when politics took a turn for the worse.
The two had urged O’Neill to resign following a move by police last to question him over the payment of K78.1 million in legal fees to Paul Paraka Lawyers.
The issue is before the court.
O’Neill said in a statement yesterday: “Kua and Polye have no mandate to make that call.
“I was mandated by the people to be the head of this government.
“If Kerenga or Polye want the mandate, they have to earn it from the people at the polls or Parliament,” O’Neill said.
“It is self-serving. All issues Kerenga is raising to justify his call are decisions of the Cabinet, not by one man, and he knows that.
“Polye’s bantering is nothing new.
“He’s been doing that since I decommissioned him as minister.”
He said Kua and Polye were allowing their emotion to influence their outbursts.
“Kerenga and others making these calls must know that I do not have any intention to resign.”
On Sir Michael Somare’s call (on Radio New Zealand) for him to step aside, O’Neill said “this mess was created during his (Somare’s) time” and he was only cleaning it up when politics took a turn for the worse.
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