Reports are emerging that during the prolonged beating of Jone Vakarisi at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks that led to his murder, one name was continually being cried out as he begged for mercy. Lynda Tabuya. Why?
Was Vakarisi pleading with his torturers to contact the Minister for Information, Environment and Climate Change in the hope that she might intervene to end his ordeal?
Were they friends or associates? What, if any, is Lynda Tabuya’s connection to the drug trade which led to the arrests and detention of Vakarisi and others, including Kelepi Komaisavu, who has given an account of his ordeal to the Fiji Times ?
One allegation on Facebook by a former SODELPA candidate, Faith Grace, has it that Jone Vakarisi mentioned the names of two lawyers who are PAP ministers in the Coalition government. One is Lynda Tabuya. Who is the other? Filimoni Vosarogo? Siromi Turaga?
Whatever Faith Grace knows, word had already reached Grubsheet that in his death throes, Jone Vakarisi, had continually cried out Lynda Tabuya’s name. Imagine. You are being beaten to death. Why would you mention Lynda other than in the belief that invoking her name would spare you?
Lynda herself says she is amused by Faith Grace’s posting. Not that she is angry or offended or regards the allegation as defamatory. She is amused.
Well the rest of us aren’t amused at all. This is an allegation – along with other reports from the Camp – that warrants the most serious investigation. What was or is the relationship between Lynda Tabuya and kingpins of the drug trade?
This takes on a particular resonance when we know that the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, and the People’s Allliance he leads found Lynda Tabuya guilty of a”sex and illicit drug scandal” during a parliamentary visit to Melbourne in August 2023.
The details are well known to Grubsheet readers because along with Victor Lal at Fijileaks, we published extracts of leaked text messages between Tabuya and her then lover, the Minister for Education, Aseri Radrodro, which referred to her smoking “weed” (marijuana) in Room 233 of the Windsor Hotel.
Where did the drugs come from? Were they brought from Fiji in a diplomatic bag – as some have alleged – or obtained in Melbourne? To this day, there has been no apparent investigation into these sensational revelations by either the Fijian or Victorian authorities. And given that the Prime Minister himself pronounced her guilty, it is an astonishing lapse of proper process.
It is a matter of record that while Lynda Tabuya was removed as PAP deputy leader, Rabuka kept her on as Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection. Incredible.
But then came another astonishing scandal – the leaking of a pornographic video that Lynda Tabuya made when she was joint head of the government’s Anti-Pornography Task Force.
This finally cost Tabuya her ministerial position. Yet after a period on the backbench, the Prime Minister brought her back as Minister for Information, the Environment and Climate Change.
Why?
Some people are now making an astonishing connection.
Was Lynda made Environment Minister to deliver the controversial Waste Disposal Facility at Saweni? Reports have it that both she and the Prime Minister indicated to the developers that they supported the project. What has been Lynda Tabuya’s role in this entire affair?
Answers please. Because amid other rumours that her husband Rob Semaan’s construction firm, Pacific Buildings Solutions, may be a beneficiary of the Saweni project, Lynda Tabuya has considerable power as Environment Minister to decide whether it goes ahead.
And another question. Is the Prime Minister’s $150,000 gold Rolex – the source of which he refuses to disclose – linked to the Saweni project?
Lots of questions and precious few answers. Yet none of this is going to go away.
None of the magic that Lynda Tabuya can try to weave as Information Minister to spin her and the Coalition out of this PR nightmare is going to work.
We are months away from an election and barring another coup that deprives the Fijian people of their rendezvous with the ballot box, all this is going to be raked over time and again.
These questions are going to have to be answered. Because as sure as the sun sets over Saweni, Lynda Tabuya and the Coalition are going to be held accountable whether they like it or not.
The RFMF Commander, as the overall head of the RFMF, should be immediately removed from his position to bring integrity to the organization – and to allow independent investigations.
At present, there are thugs and murderers at RFMF who are killing and torturing civilians – and their Commander is quick to cover it up with lies, as was seen from Vakarisi’s medical report evidence.
If claims that the victim cried out for Lynda are true, it’s possible that she was a friend he was hoping would rescue him. It doesn’t mean she’s involved in any way. I’m sure that had Lynda known, she would’ve have tried to rescue him. From what I’ve read about her, for all her faults she is a compassionate person.
That does not digress suspicions about her role in the Vuda scandal. Clearly the project was a done deal with cabinet before the public knew. Lynda was in the know from the beginning. This is clear from her behavior. How she is using her position to spin-doctor and facilitate the project.
She was appointed both information and environment minister to see this project through. On social media I can see how she is trying to court the media with taxpayer handouts. She is especially close to Mai TV and Stanley Simpson. This is professionally and ethically wrong.
Lynda may be compassionate but she is not honest. As a reader of GrubSheet, to me it seems she is also greedy and ambitious.
She has a conflict of interest on the Vuda project through her husband’s firm Pacific Building Solutions. There may not be any conflict now but certainly later, once the project is complete, she can be rewarded somehow. This is how corrupt networks at the high level work.
The Vuda deal can make her and her husband rich. That’s why she’s going to great lengths for the project despite public opposition and even risking her political career.
She cannot be a minister if she cannot be trusted.
( She is) A compassionate person:
If as in this case, the same compassionate person is also described to be Dishonest, Greedy and UnTrustworthy, I might be inclined to think that this deceptive person displays measured amounts of compassion to mask and for furtherance of their primary agenda – ambition of power and pursuit of money. Indeed it is one of the tactics of businesses with unethical products to give out sponsorships and being charitable to whitewash their immoral corporate behaviour.
Kookai, the common thread between Cromb, Seaman, Malouf are:
– Rokoseru Nabalarua
– The Wonderful Company
– Munro Leys (Marigold and Nick Barnes are both ex ML).
What sort of agreement is Roko making with Cromb/Malouf? Why is he constantly popping up. He’s an ex-Kookai/Fiji Water so heavily conflicted. Has there been any recorded declaration of his conflict at Board level? FICAC needs to step up and investigate this snake who is escaping the eyes of the public. Very closely connected to Rabuka as well.
Pigs/Trough…enough said.
Don’t be hoodwinked, you are not wrong about unethical business tactics, including “charitable sponsorships to whitewash immoral corporate behaviour.”
Fiji Water’s Fiji Water Foundation comes to mind. They give landowners a pittance while extracting huge amounts of water, with long term damage to the environment. Their actions are unmonitored and unregulated, including massive plastic pollution of our small island country.
Fiji Water is the most rapacious of corporate companies, typical of American corporate greed, aided and abetted by the two biggest bastards in Fiji — Richard Naidu and Baiman Prasad.
Fiji Water’s rapaciousness is reflected in the insidious manner in which it gained a 7 year tax holiday through Baiman and Ritchie Rich the bitch, who roped in and duped a hapless and clueless PM in Rolex Rabuka in the scheme.
As we all know, the tax holiday is subsided by the landowners of Fiji Water and the taxpayers of the country via the 15% tax proposed by finance minister Baiman’s fiscal review committee, which he of course approved. It was all set up from the beginning, with Baiman appointing Richard, and his (Biman’s) alleged mistress, Kirti Patel, on the committee to vote in favour of Fiji Water and the VAT increase.
The biggest winners were Fiji Water, Richard Naidu’s law firm Munro Leys, and PM, who got a free trip to the US and collected hefty per diem and sold out the resource owners cheaply.
The biggest losers were the landowners, Fijian taxpayers and Fiji’s environment.
Baiman also lost out in the end because karma is a bitch and he is no longer fianance minister or deputy minister. He is consigned to the dustbin of politics from where he will make an ignominious exit as the worst finance minister and deputy prime minister in Fiji’s history.
So far Richard Naidu has escaped except for his reputation which is down the toilet, but his day will surely come.
After Fiji Water we have Vudagate. Lynda should learn from the fate of her good friend Baiman and proceed with caution lest the curse of the citizens befall her.
One can note lots of so called drug raids here and there.
Lets hope its not a cover up to hoodwink the public on Vakarisi murder.
Those who killed Vakarisi must face justice.
Full stop.
Drugs raid can continue in the meantime through proper operation of the law.
Wow! I did not see this connection coming. And Tubuya needs to be investigated.
This story gets bigger and bigger.