Former Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says it is all nonsense that some people in the former FijiFirst Government and some Muslims were involved in supporting the illicit drug trade.
When questioned by fijivillage News on the drug crisis, many people being arrested and the joint operations now running, and whether the previous government should have had accelerated efforts during it's time to deal with the drug trade, Sayed-Khaiyum says when Sitiveni Qiliho was the Commissioner of Police, he had a Special Narcotics Unit, and he remembers giving additional funding to even hire unmarked vehicles for the operations.
He says the current government got rid of that Narcotics Unit in 2023, and he then said that we have not been covering that because we 'masipolo' the current government.
Sayed-Khaiyum says there was no unit for one year.
He also says the government should have continued with the Job Evaluation Exercise to continue to look at the pay conditions of the Police officers from 2023 onwards.
Sayed-Khaiyum says when you have the cost of living going up and the officers are not paid well, some people are bound to succumb to the enticements.
When asked by fijivillage News on businessman, Aiyaz Musa who was eventually convicted of the drug trade in New Zealand, was a donor of the FijiFirst Party and had fled Fiji under suspicious circumstances in 2022 despite an Interpol red alert issued against him, Sayed-Khaiyum says it is incorrect and stupid to claim that the party favoured Musa, and these are just assumptions, as there are no connections at all.
Insert : Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum On Drugs 11th June 2026
fijivillage News rejects Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum's claims against us, and as always we remain fair and independent, and we have covered stories about the Narcotics Unit and Bureau issues during the current government's term.
