It has taken barely 72 hours since FICAC was presented with the sensational affidavit of the senior ODPP staffer, Susana Vuniani, alleging corrupt conduct on the part of the Chief Justice and the Acting DPP for the corruption watchdog to clear them – conclusive evidence that something is very rotten in the state of Fiji.
Where is a painstaking evaluation of the astonishing allegations in the sworn statement republished again below? There hasn’t been one. There couldn’t have been one. Instead the whole episode is dismissed out of hand.
The term “undue haste” doesn’t even begin to describe this travesty. But It is not the end of the matter. Far from it. For we now know that FICAC under Lavi Rokoika – if we hadn’t suspected so before – is not a proper independent investigating authority at all.
Rokoika – besieged and under fire – has evidently chosen to fall into line with Salesi Temo, Nancy Tikoisuva and John Rabuku in a Gang of Four who are subverting due process and the rule of law.
They are not acting in the public interest but to protect the powerful. And Grubsheet, for one, will be on their tracks along with other crusaders for public transparency and accountability who are similarly shocked about this decision.
Together, we will be bearing the sword of justice all the way to election day. (With apologies to Winston Churchill, who famously used the phrase in relation to Hitler but which has never been more apt in Fiji).
You be the judge, Fiji. Read the following astonishing document and then decide for yourself whether what is in it should have been dismissed out of hand without a thorough investigation, not the whitewash that this appalling saga has become.
At the very least, we should be told precisely why the Australian Kings Counsel, Ian Lloyd, advised the ODPP that the police recommendations that charges be laid against some of Fiji’s biggest names – including the Chief Justice – should not be pursued.
We need a full explanation simply to preserve public confidence in the entire prosecution process, which has been shredded by successive developments in the ODPP.
But above all, we need a thorough investigation into the first person account by Susana Vuniani that she was present at a meeting at which Nancy Tikoisuva stated that “proceeding with charges (arising from the CoI) would cause embarrassment and conflict and that these were also the directives of the Chief Justice, Salesi Temo”.
Without this, nothing warrants bringing any investigation to an end.
As Grubsheet has written before, I am recovering from surgery and can only type with one finger. So I have again invited a senior lawyer to add to what I have written with their own analysis:
“I have read the FICAC statement which appears to focus on the narrow issue of whether a legal opinion from Ian Lloyd KC actually existed.
However, the point remains that a Supreme Court judge, Mr Justice Ashton- Lewis, recommended investigating those adversely named in the COI report.
The police investigated those individuals’ actions and recommended filing charges.
The file then went to the ODPP where Nancy Tikoisuva and John Rabuku held a meeting to discuss the matter.
Susana Vuniani, the head of the ODPP registry, was present at that meeting.
In her sworn statutory declaration, Susana Vuniani claims that at that meeting Nancy said the ODPP would not charge anyone because it “would cause embarrassment and conflict” and that these were also “the directives of the Chief Justice, Salesi Temo”.
Regardless of Ian Lloyd KC’s legal opinion, the decision to charge rested solely with Nancy Tikoisuva as the acting DPP. She had a duty to decide the matter based on sufficient evidence and public interest. According to Susana Vuniani, Nancy did neither and considered extraneous factors irrelevant to an ethical decision.
FICAC’s dismissal of the complaint settles nothing. The essential point remains that Nancy, despite the recommendations of the police to charge, chose not to do so.
The wider questions of prosecutorial due process and the Chief Justice’s undue influence on that process remain open and must be investigated fully for the public to have any confidence in the ODPP and Nancy Tikoisuva’s leadership“.
To the existing three rogues, add another…
In a corrupt system presided over by Rolex Rambo – the Chief Crook and Snake – who still won’t say who gave him his $150,000 watch. And no-one questions it, least of all the supposed corruption watchdogs.
Plus two deputy prime ministers facing trial for corruption who act as if they don’t have a care in the world. Presumably because they don’t.
That’s Fiji six months from an election that the Coalition is doing everything it can to delay.
It must not be allowed to succeed.
POSTSCRIPT:
And here’s a prime example of the corruption of the Fijian media by this government, including the nation’s traditional newspaper of record – the Fiji Times.
Fred Wesley‘s fish-wrapping has chosen not to give any coverage at all to the contents of Susana Vuniani’s explosive affidavit. None whatsoever. But it dutifully reports FICAC’s statement rejecting any investigation into the allegations contained in it.
Well, of course the Fiji Times dutifully falls into line. After all, it has just received $375,000 of your money in the latest budget in the form of a Public Service Broadcasting grant.
Yes, incredibly, the squillionaire Motibhai Patels of Ba are receiving taxpayer funding when there is a budget shortfall of $1.5 billion dollars and the national debt is steadily escalating. And in return, they are manipulating the news for the government’s benefit.
Welcome to Fiji. Truly a sunny paradise for shady people in the South Seas.
What people forget is a very basic mentality in Fiji.
Fijians will not investigate each other. They will maintain solidarity to keep the vulagi out.
This government will be a shoo-in come the next election. Wait and watch.
If George Speight stands (if he is eligible) he will easily get the highest votes in my opinion.
People in Fiji have no problems with donkeys being in charge as long as the vulagi are kept at bay. The whole country is defined by prejudice fuelled by a passion for fake and pretend Christianity.
The country is just a circus. What do you expect when the President is a pedophile in nappies and the PM is a well known idiot. Nothing has changed in 40 years. That is what the people want.
The country is definitely a circus in which Rabuka and his ilk get the last laugh. But I think a great many ordinary people have come to realise that the joke is on them.
The question they have to ask themselves is this: Has my life and that of my family improved under this government? And the answer to that is a resounding “no”. Which means a lot more is in play politically come election day than you might imagine.
The question about asking “has my life changed during this government “ is not important. The mentality is that they can always go back to their village and live off the land. What is more important is that the vulagi must not be in power at any cost. It is a very selfish and self serving mentality not to mention a very racist mentality. What happened to Christopher Pride is pure racism.
You are forgetting that Rabuka redirected lease money derived from iTaukei land from ordinary people back to the chiefs. So they lost a significant source of income.
The backlash to this is already a potent factor in the vanua. And all of it done without any consideration for whether restoring the GCC is in the best interests of the iTaukei generally – the reinforcement of hereditary privilege over the modern, democratic principle that all people are equal and deserve to have control of their own destiny.
I share your concerns about the Coalitions racist & ego-centric way of governing. All for the elite itaukei & covering each others’ asses.
However at grass roots I see the itaukei & Indo-Fijians mostly laughing together & supporting each other. I think there is growing dissatisfaction amongst both cultures.
The itaukei who remain supportive of these governing clowns (IMO) are either the benefiting elite, or the grade 6 educated simple folk deluded into thinking they’ll somehow get all their land back, magically be wealthy and live the life of billionaires.
I’d like to think there are more sensible than selfish/deluded Fijians.
Given everything, it is quite clear why Temo didn’t want Christopher Pryde anywhere near his office. The one person that would have stood up to all of this and had the whole rotten lot facing grave charges before the Courts.
This country is run by a bunch of self serving goons that don’t in any way give a toss about the people they were elected to serve. They are out for one thing and that is to use their positions and like-minded cohorts to further their abilities to make as much money for themselves as possible, whilst conning the unfortunate citizens who put them into positions of authority.
They are a pack of wastrels who if they possessed one iota of decency would be ashamed to show their faces in public. They are hypocrites who rip off the less fortunate that make up the majority in this country and then turn up at church on Sunday.
Despicable is too good a word to describe these snakes.
Yes, well now that we have a senior whistleblower from the ODPP in the form of Susana Vuniani, we are also poised to find out precisely what machinations took place behind the scenes to keep Christopher Pryde from again taking up his job after he was exonerated of misbehaviour by the Tuilevuka Tribunal and reinstated by the President.
Watch this space.
Lavi has traded integrity for job security.
Investigate the CJ and your career is over. Don’t poke the bear and you get to enjoy all the perks and the lavish salary that comes with the role of a FICAC commissioner.
Why are we continuing to put so much faith in a self-proclaimed “independent” and “unbiased” institution when it is anything but that?
Independence and integrity existed when Francis Puleiwai was around. She clearly demonstrated that when she arrested big-boobed Barbs.
Lavi is nothing but a palm greasing, regime stooge and lackey.
Remembering what happened at FICAC when it was descended upon by Bainivalu and Wyllie etc.
The audio tape of what went down at FICAC you can not deny what was said to FICAC. It was intimidation and perverting justice.
It’s all on tape.
The COI needed to be followed through. It was not.
Pulewai and Saumi exposed something back then and now Susana. The bravery to stand up for what’s right in the machine of corruption. The same names keep popping up and it’s everyone at the top.
We need good honest people in our lives and running Fiji. Those top positions held have no place for the current lot.
Yes, Susana Vuniani has joined Francis Puleiwai and Kuliniasi Saumi as the Three Musketeers taking a stand for justice. As you say, we need more men and women brave and true to join them. Because as the old saying goes, evil triumphs when good people do nothing.
In the words of the immortal Bard,
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here”
Welcome back GD
Have you ever considered starting a podcast?
“Oi. Ni bula vinaka, Fiji. Keremi Davisi oqo. Ni vakarorogo tiko mai e na Grubsheet”. Interspersed with lots of “bro”, “set” and “has anyone got Lynda’s latest video clip?”
Yeah, that’ll work. Vinaka for the suggestion 🙂
Haha. Nah, seriously! Genuinely think it will be a hit. Esp to the younger gen.
Have guests from time to time. Ordinary people like Vuniani via zoom to expose the system. Even some of the frequent commenters on your blogs are good guests I reckon. You`ve built quite a following on Grubsheet so Podcast just might expose the system more with greater impact. both good and bad? Why not?
You are very kind. I will give it some thought.
By Charlie Charters
FIJI … who can beat you??
Can you imagine which is the country that applies for more asylum visas from Australia on a per capita basis than anywhere else in the world?
This same country has sat in Australia’s Top Five of countries whose citizens are seeking asylum for each of the last 12 months on average yet has one of the lowest rates of successfully securing refugee status – only 9 percent?
In other words, nine in ten applications are dismissed.
That would be Vuvale Fiji!!
One of the interesting things about the case of former ODPP manager Susana Vuniani was the reaction that I got when I shared her statutory declaration with two lawyers I know in Australia.
‘It feels like one of those …’ a Sydney-based lawyer said to me over WhatsApp, rolling his eyes.
I didn’t quite understand so was directed to the Home Affairs website.
The statutory declaration that Vuniani appears to have filed out – alleging all sorts of crimes and misdemeanours in Fiji’s ODPP – is to secure a Protection Visa Onshore subclass 866.
Canberra’s Home Affairs Ministry keeps impressively updated figures. I have screenshot the past five months of subclass 866 applications, the most recent figures come from April this year:
April 2026 – 95 onshore visas applied for by Fiji citizens. In the same month 11 Fiji citizens were successfully granted refugee status [from applications made in earlier months/years].
In March 2026, the figure was 130 applied and 8 successful
February – 96 and 5
January 2026 – 60 and 11
December 2025 – 57 and 23
November – 68 and 5
October 54 and 5
September – 74 and 0
August – 89 and 10
July – 100 and 15
June – 144 and 0
May 2025 – 135 and 8
As I said in a year, the total number of Fiji citizens applying for asylum [May 2025-April 2026] through the 866 subclass visa was a total of 1,102.
This compares with the approx 5000 Fiji citizens in Australia under the four-year PALM scheme of which around 1000 are resident in NSW.
For the past three months for which records are available [Feb – April 2026] Fiji was in the top three countries by number of applications – along with PR China and India.
Other Pacific Island countries are way, way further down the list.
The specifics of the visa require you to arrive lawfully in Australia [hence it is an ‘Onshore’ category] where your Protection Visa application must be lodged and processed.
The cost is AUD50 and, if granted, the visa is permanent.
This is a formal request for asylum in Australia on the basis that the asylum-seeker has ‘a well-founded fear of persecution and there is a real chance they will be persecuted in their home country’.
Hence the need to fill out and sign a statutory declaration.
While the application is being processed you have the right to live, study and work in Australia and, if successful, you could move your whole family over as well by sponsoring family members for permanent residence as well.
There seems to be an understanding that by gaming the processing to get extra time you could stretch this out to perhaps 2-3 years of residence in Australia, I am told, even if you get rejected at the end.
Honestly, I am shocked at the numbers.
Yes, I suppose after my experiences with FICAC I could be classified as a poster child for why someone might flee Fiji fearing arbitrary arrest, detention and criminal prosecution for incorrect thinking and not following approved writing on social media.
But is Fiji really that bad?
Is Fiji worse by capita than Iran for instance? Or as bad as under Bainimarama?
And yet, from Canberra’s perspective, that same Fiji is getting the upgraded deep love and affection and state-aid packs of Tim Tams and Phantom comics as part of the Vuvale Union and Ocean of Peace Alliance treaties?
Is anyone in Canberra the slightest bit intrigued why Suva seems to be generating so many distressed and allegedly persecuted citizens flocking to Australia’s shores?
Charlie Charters ridicules Susana Vuniana for blowing the whistle on misconduct on the part of the ODPP and the Chief Justice while claiming the right as a “citizen journalist” to encourage a FICAC insider to blow the whistle on what is happening at the corruption watchdog. It has landed him in court but he at least has the luxury of gaining the court’s permission to leave Fiji.
We shall see whether he returns to face justice now that his principal argument that Lavi Rokoika isn’t lawfully appointed has been thrown out by the judge in other cases. But it is the height of arrogance for him to play judge and jury and cast aspersions on the motives of Susana Vuniani in coming forward to blow the whistle on the alleged wrongdoing she has outlined under oath in a sworn statement.
It is incredible that he quotes two unnamed Sydney lawyers saying Susana’s affidavit smacks of her using false accusations in an attempt to stay in Australia. Who are these people? Because Grubsheet knows other lawyers here who believe the account she has given and are anxious for her to obtain a protection visa on the basis that she faces a very real threat to her well-being if she is forced to return to Fiji.
And what is the evidence for that? What happened to Francis Puleiwai when she dared stand up to the posse led by Wylie Clarke which stormed into FICAC to prevent her from charging Barbara Malimali and relayed a message from the Chief Justice that no court in Fiji would hear any charge she laid. Members of that posse were found by the coI to have been liable to charges of perverting the course of justice and we learn from Susana that the police – after investigating their conduct – also recommended the same thing. But as Susana tells it, that was quashed on the orders of Nancy Tikoisuva and Salesi Temo.
What happened to Francis Puleiwai? She barely escaped from Fiji when she was targeted for standing up for justice. Malimali put a stop departure order on her and threatened prosecution but Francis was savvy enough to go straight to the airport and was able to leave Fiji just before she was prevented from doing so. She is now in New Zealand and has the protection of the New Zealand government.
The same should clearly apply to Susana Vuniani in Australia. She has made allegations under oath that are grave in the extreme and clearly expose her to the threat of severe punishment were she to be forced back to Fiji.
Grubsheet understands that not only is she making the existing allegations but she has sensational information which points to a similar conspiracy by the ODPP and the Chief Justice to manufacture evidence against Christopher Pryde to prevent him from returning as DPP after he was cleared by the Tuilevuka Tribunal and reinstated by the President. So it is vital that she is able to give sworn evidence in relation to this as well.
Susana was appointed to the ODPP in 2017 and worked successfully under Christopher Pryde for six years as a trusted and competent head of the ODPP Registry dealing with the Police. And just as Charlie Charters has waged a vendetta – quite unjustly – against Christopher Pryde, he has now turned his sights on Susana, casting her as some kind of fortune hunter trying to peddle false information to stay in Australia.
She has never put a foot wrong professionally, unlike the man Charlie Charters praises – John Rabuku, the Deputy DPP, who stands convicted of professional misconduct by the Independent Legal Services Commission – something that prevented him from being DPP on the say-so of three Supreme Court judges.
Charlie’s indirect attack on Susana Vuniani’s integrity is a disgrace. Even if she is wrong in saying that Ian Lloyd KC gave no advice to the ODPP, she swears on oath that she was present and heard Nancy Tikoisuva say none of the charges recommended by the police would be sanctioned because they were “embarrassing” to those named. And she swears Nancy evoked the name of the Chief Justice saying prosecutions should be quashed when he was one of those the police recommended should be charged with perverting the course of justice.
This account – by the person directly liaising between the ODPP and the police at the time – must be taken seriously and be tested in a court of law. Instead, Charlie Charters tries to trash it by impugning the reputation of someone with an impeccable reputation, at least until last week when John Rabuku attacked her as a liar for what she has sworn on the bible to be true.
Well Charlie would, wouldn’t he? He has consistently defended Wylie Clarke – his friend of 30 years – and done everything he possibly can to trash the reputation of Justice David Ashton-Lewis and the CoI. And now he is trying to trash Susana Vuniani. It isn’t going to work. Just as Francis Puleiwai has been given protection in New Zealand, so must Australia protect Susana Vuniani.
Truth will out – as the old saying goes – whatever the efforts of Homer in his mumu – a preposterous figure who claims his own right to free expression but doesn’t extend it to others. Yes, Fiji is that bad, Charlie. And you are a f**king disgrace.
Charlie Charters
HONESTLY … what a waste-of-time complaint.
The ‘asylum application’ has unravelled like a badly tied knot. Seventy-two hours and it’s all over Red Rover.
The key point was: If there was written legal advice from Ian Lloyd KC then the sworn statutory declaration from former ODPP officer Susana Vuniani could not be true.
That’s because she had written: ‘As administration officer for Litigation and Registry, I state that no legal opinion from KC Ian Lloyd was ever prepared for the COI Matter’.
FICAC’s statement confirms that such a written legal opinion from Lloyd exists, was prepared for the COI matter, and FICAC have sighted it.
Shame on Graham Davis and his witless cheerleaders for gumming up FICAC time with their hysterical wind-baggery.
This is the second time that Davis has tangled with a King’s Counsel this year and come out second best.
In March, Davis was forced into writing an embarrassing apology after twice questioning the integrity of Martin Daubney KC based on a simple error of fact that even a junior copyboy would have thought to check before making.
Meantime as the next showdown looms in Judge Dane Tuiqereqere’s Court #13 on August 3 for the whole Ashton-Lewis-Mason-Forwood-Chaudhry COI gravy train, Davis is left to pick over the dog’s dinner of a meal that Vuniani has dropped into his lap, including this triumph of journalistic pyscholinguistics:
After publishing Lloyd’s clear and full-throated denial of Vuniani’s allegations against him, Davis wrote:
‘So according to Ian Lloyd KC, the assertions made by Ms Vuniani… are “totally inaccurate”. Again, no use of the term “false”’.
Poor old Homer, sorry Charlie, isn’t just “wind-baggery” personified but he has an increasingly tenuous grasp on the facts. Let me explain.
FACT: The head of the ODPP Registry who is the link between the prosecution service and the police says in a sworn statement that they recommended charges against some of the country’s biggest names – including Charlie’s mate of 30 years, Wylie Clarke.
FACT: On the bible, she also swears that she was present at a meeting at which Nancy Tikoisuva and John Rabuku – invoking the name of the Chief Justice, Salesi Temo – said none of the police recommendations would be acted upon because they were “embarrassing” to those individuals.
FACT: This is a legitimate story by any journalistic standard. Grubsheet published it and was first with the story. The Fijian mainstream media – with the exception of the Fiji Sun – didn’t touch it until the response from the ODPP. And they still haven’t published the document itself and the central allegation of a conspiracy to shut down prosecutions arising from the CoI.
FACT: It now appears that contrary to Susana Vuniani’s assertion that no advice from Ian Lloyd KC exists, advice was given that none of the police submissions warranted prosecution.
The head of the Registry clearly wasn’t in the loop. But no-one outside the Ian Lloyd/ Nancy Tikiosuva/ John Rabuku clique has seen that advice to be able to examine its merits. This evidently includes the police and certainly Justice David Ashton-Lewis, who recommended the police investigation in the first place alleging prima facie cases of perverting the course of justice.
FACT: Whether Ian Lloyd gave advice is neither here nor there to the main allegation – a first person account, not hearsay, of an alleged conspiracy involving the Chief Justice and the Acting DPP to protect those investigated by the police from prosecution and “embarrassment”.
Susan Vuniani had been at the ODPP for nine years, six of those under Christopher Pryde, who regarded her as a person of competence and integrity. She has a blemish-free record and when she gives a sworn statement, of course I am going to report it. It is clearly in the public interest.
FACT: Neither the ODPP nor Ian Lloyd declare that Susana’s evidence of what she witnessed at the meeting at the core of this affidavit is false. The ODDP refers to “material inconsistencies” and the only use of the word “false” is in relation to the ODPP’s claim that she no longer works for it.
Ian Lloyd uses the term “totally inaccurate” in relation to whether or not he gave advice to the ODPP. He could have used the word false but doesn’t. Which implies that Susana is mistaken rather than spinning a false narrative. She appears to have been unaware that Ian Lloyd had submitted a report to Nancy Tikoisuva. She – and we – are evidently not entitled to see why Ian Lloyd doesn’t think charges are warranted when the police think so and so does a Supreme Court judge.
FACT: Homer, sorry Charlie, says it’s the “second time I have tangled with a KC this year and come out second best”. Blind Freddy can see that I haven’t “tangled” with Ian Lloyd. I faithfully published his email to me in full.
In the case of Martin Daubney KC, the judicial website had him listed as a judge of the Fiji Court of Appeal and I questioned on that basis why he was acting for Manoa Kamikamica and Biman Prasad in the cases again them. His lawyers threatened to sue and said I should have checked with him whether he was on the Court of Appeal. But there it was on the Judicial website and my own legal advice was that it was a primary source that I was reasonable to regard as authoritative. I nonetheless apologised and corrected the record.
Readers can judge for themselves the relative merits of Homer’s claims and my response. He knows that I can’t respond to him on Facebook and I only know when he attacks me when someone else alerts me, as in this instance.
But I repeat: His attack on Susana Vuniani and his suggestion that she is trying to gain an Australian protection visa on false pretences is a disgrace. Similarly, his defence of FICAC smacks of a big suck-up when he is being prosecuted by FICAC. Or maybe he has done a deal we don’t know about.
My single finger hurts. No more. This is an AI-free zone, unlike certain other places.
This is what Stanley Simpson had to say. He is right. You are wrong. You, unfortunately for you, got caught in your own witch hunt, imbecile.
“So that is it! Its over. Almost 2 million dollars Commission of Inquiry into FICAC appointment down the drain. Alot of it into Ashton Lewis and Mason’s pockets. The outstanding matters perhaps is the ongoing perjury trial against Kamikamica and the various challenges and judicial reviews against the findings.”
When I care about what Stanley Simpson thinks about anything, you’ll hear it here first. Totally on the Lynda Tabuya/ Manoa Kamikamica/ Stewart Resnick/ Chinese Communist Party drip and a “journalist” bereft of integrity and judgment.
The failure of Mai TV and the rest of the mainstream media to properly report the findings of the Ashton-Lewis Commission of Inquiry is a national disgrace. And now Simpson has the gall to cast the Inquiry as a waste of public money when there is clear evidence that prosecutions recommended by the police have been quashed.
He and other senior “journalists” have betrayed the public interest and are not worthy of the appellation. They have been shameless enablers of corruption and have undermined the rule of law. Next?