PORT MORESBY – An attempt by Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to stay a warrant for his arrest has been adjourned again.

The warrant was served on O’Neill last week as part of an investigation into corruption allegations, which the prime minister says are politically motivated.

The hearing last week was adjourned to allow a new po- lice lawyer time to look at the briefing.

O’Neill’s case has been adjourned again until Friday afternoon.

The ABC’s PNG correspondent Liam Cochrane was at court and said a further request for an adjournment by police has clearly frustrated the judge overseeing the hearing.

“It was a disappointing and frustrating result but the drama in the court room was quite interesting and may give us some insights into how this case goes in a couple of days time,” he said.

“Yet another lawyer representing the police department showed up at the bench and once again asked for an adjournment, this time for 21 days.

They had asked for the three weeks to instruct the new lawyer, Sam Bona, and allow the acting commissioner, Geoffrey Vaki, to review the files.

“Everyone on the bench agreed, then the judge overruled that and denied the adjournment in the interests of justice he said. He was clearly quite annoyed,” Cochrane reported.

“The mannerisms and the words of Justice Ere Kariko could point what might happen on Friday – he did say that he was disappointed and very reluctantly allowed the adjournments.

“On Friday we can hopefully expect a decision on whether the arrest warrant against Prime Minister Peter O’Neill can go forward or not.

“And there also may be contempt charges raised from the sacking of senior police officers and possibly the disbanding of Taskforce Sweep.”

O’Neill has argued the warrant is politically motivated.

After saying he was earlier cleared by the independent investigation team, Taskforce Sweep, the Prime Minister was told there was fresh evidence suggesting he has a case to answer.

Meanwhile, Papua New Guinea’s sacked attorney general says he has no problem with losing his job defending the now-disbanded anti-corruption unit Taskforce Sweep and its former head, Sam Koim.

Kerenga Kua says the prime minister is the one in the wrong and the Taskforce Sweep team has acted fearlessly.

“I stand by the Taskforce Sweep team lock, stock and barrel in everything they do, have done and were doing up to the point of my decommissioning.

“I told the Prime Minister after he advised me of those things, I said: ‘You know Mr Prime Minister, I have a message to you from myself,’ and I said, ‘you really need to resign as prime minister because you’ve disgraced the country.”

Kua said the prime minister’s actions were pushing the country towards an autocratic dictatorship.

Papua New Guinea’s opposition leader Belden Namah believes that after this week’s extraordinary events, O’Neill’s days as the country’s prime minister are numbered.

Namah says the prime minister cannot stop the police from carrying out their “constitutional duty”.