in august 2011, marus was one of the defectors from the government as peter o'neill ousted somare as prime minister, with speaker nape presiding over parliament. in december 2011, with o'neill and somare still disputing who was validly prime minister, nape became acting governor-general and marus once again became acting speaker. in january 2012, he referred somare to police over an incident where somare and colleagues had entered parliament to physically present marus with a court order reinstating somare to office.