[5] The office holders of the PLOA are elected by one representative of each of the 24 sub-clans that own traditional land in and around PJV's mining area.
[7] In April 2009 Mark Ekepa travelled to Port Moresby with the stated intention of meeting the Prime Minister Michael Somare, in order to withdraw the PLOA's support for the police deployment to Porgera.
[8] On behalf of the landowners, Paulus Dowa Lawyers threatened to sue the National Police Commissioner Gari Baki and the Minister of Internal Security Sambi Rambi for destruction of property.
[9] Mark Ekepa met James Cameron, the director of the science fiction film Avatar, in New York City in 2010.
[5] The PLOA, supported by an international non-profit organisation MiningWatch Canada, launched a complaint in March 2011 against Barrick Gold and PJV with the Canadian National Contact Point, the mediator for breaches of OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
[11] Mark Ekepa reportedly shot his father in the head at close range in 1996 during a public argument over mine compensation money.
While Ekepa has become a voice on the global stage, those in the Porgera community distrust him due to the PLOA's lack of financial transparency.
In March 2005 this issue had come to the attention of Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, who wrote to Government Secretary Joshua Kalinoe complaining that the mine royalties were being hijacked by third parties and middlemen.
[2] In 2005 Ekepa was criticised by a rival Porgeran leader for never having called for the government to investigate suspected community deaths on the mine site.
Jonah Pilah Kipu, the chairman of a Porgera youth association, said that Ekepa had only first spoken out about the issue - some 21 suspected deaths over 15 years - after being arrested by the police on charges of misappropriation.