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Axiom operates without Business licence: Premier Habu

Premier of Isabel Province Hon James Habu

PREMIER for Isabel Province, James Habu, says his executive never gave any business licence to Axiom for their operation in Isabel due to their case not being clear.

Premier Habu said there was a query made to the Director of Mines and his response was that the case of Axiom is not clear.

“Therefore it is up to the Director of Mines to clarify their position on Axiom operating in South San Jorge Isabel province,” Premier Habu said.

Allan Kapu from San Jorge in Isabel said on Tuesday afternoon a small ship named Tara was in San Jorge to collect the 61 samples believed to be collected from the prospecting Axiom did in Bungusule, South San Jorge.

While the ship was there, police from Buala arrived for investigation on people illegally harvesting Beche-der-mer.

And, due to some disagreement by some resource owners at San Jorge, they attended to the ship and told them to sort out things before they could transport the samples to Honiara.

Mr Kapu also said even officers from Axiom office in Honiara called the police officers while in San Jorge and confronted them to allow the samples to be transported to Honiara.

Meanwhile, Island Sun contacted Buala Police about the incident and they confirmed that they were there on Tuesday and also witnessed what happened.

“But it’s up to the responsible Ministry to deal with such case, police officers can only act if assistance were requested,” they said.

Buala police also confirmed that they had incidentally been in the area to attend to a different report when they were made aware of the stand-off between the landowners and the company.

The Director of Mines could not be reached yesterday for comments.