Provincial Rugby Unions support Steven Kami (Post Courier 9/12/16)

from left Ako Maniana President of Central Rugby Union, Avea Hiarua President of Morobe Rugby Union, Jacky Tokam President of Madang Rugby Union, Peter Prior President of West New Britain Rugby Union 

By FIDELIS SUKINA

The constitution used by the Papua New Guinea Rugby Football Union (PNGRFU) is outdated and is deemed illegal, thus the formation of a new PNGRFU Board under the Presidency of Steven Kami was voted in.

This was made known by four of the 10 provincial rugby union presidents, at a press conference yesterday, Avea Hiarua President of Morobe Rugby Union, Jacky Tokam President of Madang Rugby Union, Peter Prior President of West New Britain Rugby Union and Ako Maniana President of Central Rugby Union, were present to rally their support for Steven Kami and they added as well that other Provincial Unions AROB, Capital Rugby Union, Oro and New Ireland were in support of Kami aswell.

Maniana confirmed that the only legitimate constitution for PNGRFU at the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) dated back to 1998, and based on that constitution an interim committee was established.

“When we discovered from the IPA that the constitution was invalid we had to correct that, so we reverted to the 1998 constitution because it was the only legal document we could base any action on and that constitution was then used to form an interim committee, and based on that interim committee we over saw 14 days required by the constitution leading up to the election of the current board under Steven Kami,”

He added that this was made known to the PNGRFU members who included Ben Frame and the other stake holders, but there was no positive response.

“We gave out invitations to the PNGRFU Board and members that there was going to be an election it was published in the media and 24th of November vote was taken by 46 people and the current executives were voted in under the 1998 constitution which was the only valid constitution according to IPA,” Maniana said.

Hiarua also confirmed that the unregistered 2012 constitution used by the PNRFU said there would be an Annual General Meeting (AGM) after every 15 months and that 15 months from 2015 AGM had lapsed on the month of October,

“According to the unregistered constitution from 2012 the 15 months before the next AGM had ended on the 28th October 2016 and we the Provincial Rugby Union presidents sent a petition to Ben Frame and his executives that if they were to move the AGM they would be in breach of the constitution that they were relying on, but they haven’t come back to us on that petition but they still want the provincial unions to comply with their January 2017 AGM,” Hiarua said.