The Rokoikas are among the cream of the elite in Fiji – reportedly related to both the President, Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, and the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, and with top jobs in the iTaukei establishment.
Lavi Rokoika, of course, is the Acting FICAC Commissioner brought in by Rabuka to supposedly clean up the mess of the Barbara Malimali debacle but who is now also mired in controversy, including Charlie Charters challenging her appointment in the High Court .
It has been a shocking week for Lavi as she finds her legs removed and the street beckoning if the 2026 draft Constitution abolishing FICAC eventually becomes the supreme law. But at the same time, her sister, Vani Rokoika, is the principal “person of interest” in the $50-million cocaine heist from the High Court.
Vani is Lavi’s younger sister who has been a clerk in the High Court but is now allegedly on the run in Australia ( Her last location was evidently Brisbane) desperately trying to evade the authorities.
How she was able to leave the country without assistance in the first place is an obvious question. So too is how she was repeatedly able, according to the Fiji Sun, to make early morning forays into the High Court exhibit room with the CCTV cameras (if they even exist) evidently turned off.
It seems that between 2.00am and 4.00am is when seized cocaine was substituted for flour in what Michael Field of Pacific Newsroom is describing as the biggest miracle since Jesus turned water into wine at the celebrated wedding in Cana.
One of the “persons of interest” who hasn’t fled is Vani’s husband, who is currently being subjected to intense police questioning at the couple’s home in Suva. And guess what, Fiji? According to reliable sources, this bloke just happens to be employed at FICAC as Lavi Rokika’s driver. Talk about all in the family, eh? Those Rokoikas are just like the Kadashians.
Of course, as Charlie Charters himself points out, Vani is entitled to the presumption of innocence. Australia is a strange place to have gone because the Aussies are all over this case and it is only a matter of time before they find her (if they haven’t already done so) and the extradition process begins.
It is no secret that any drug haul of this magnitude seized in Fiji will have been destined for the big markets of Australia and New Zealand. And those cartels who have seen their cocaine and their profits disappear into the exhibits room at the High Court would have been moving heaven and earth to get it back again.
When a cocaine haul has a street value of $50-million, how much would they be offering as a reward to anyone who could retrieve it for them? 10-per cent ($5-million)? 5 per cent ($2.5-million)? $1-million? A few hundred thousand? It wouldn’t have been a couple of slabs of Fiji Gold, that’s for sure.
And all you have to do is have access to the High Court, buy a stack of FMF flour (you can bet the police are investigating recent bulk buys), crack the lock or be given the code to the exhibit room and presto. It doesn’t need a Christ-like miracle. You just substitute the coke with the flour and off you go, paying off anyone who might have also been involved or have seen you to keep schtum.
The Chief Justice, Salesi Temo, and his drink-driving Chief Registrar, Tomasi Bainivalu, are trying to lay the blame on the ODPP for not destroying the drugs in the first place. But they have ultimate responsibility for this debacle through not having ensured a properly-secured facility on their premises. Any chance of taking responsibility for that and resigning? Was that yet another pig flying over Suva?
Lavi Rokoika will have her head in her hands this weekend and the sickest of feelings in the pit of her stomach. Because not only is her family being linked to the biggest drug theft in Fijian history but if the new draft Constitution eventually becomes the supreme law, she is out of a job.
The only comfort she has is the stupidity of the Acting Attorney General, Siromi Turaga, in being able to convince the Prime Minister and the parliament that FICAC can easily be abolished by simply quashing the FICAC Act of 2007.
It isn’t going to be that easy. Fiji has ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and has no choice but to have an anti-corruption body separate from the police. As soon as FICAC goes, Fiji is in breach of that convention. And it is going to have to answer to the global community – and especially its donors – why it isn’t taking corruption seriously when there is so much evidence of it in Fiji and face the possibility of sanctions.
It’s the only bright spot on Lavi’s horizon this Sunday lunchtime. The rest of it is unmitigated gloom.
POSTSCRIPT:
Siromi Turaga is crowing about staff being sent on leave to “ensure a transparent inquiry”. Yet the Chief Registrar who is in charge stays on the job.
Presumably the Acting AG thinks Tomasi Bainivalu is above scrutiny (he isn’t) but a serious inquiry would need to first remove him from being in a position to cover any tracks. He must be stood down immediately if this inquiry is to be taken seriously at all.
According to Charlie Charters, before Vani Rokoika’s husband became driver to her sister at FICAC, he was employed as Tomasi Bainivalu’s driver at the courts. What does that mean? Maybe nothing, maybe a great deal. But it needs to be investigated with Bainivalu out of the way.
And what of rumours that Bainivalu has unexplained wealth, including a multi-million dollar house on Denarau?
Tell us in the comments section how confident you are, Fiji, of justice being properly served.
The wider FICAC story and the implications of abolishing it altogether….
Opposition from within the country…
But it just can’t happen anyway. Or at least happen without a great deal of pain.
Fiji has ratified the relevant UN convention and shooting the corruption watchdog would be in breach of its undertakings and result in serious consequences.
Whoops.
Fiji has become quite the read lately. Drugs, sex, corruption at the highest levels, stunning ineptitude and constant dramas delivered at a gobsmacking speed. One can’t wait to turn the page and see what’s next. I’ve stopped needing to pick up a novel.