My tweet does not imply that FijiFirst is behind the temple attacks - Richard Naidu

Suva lawyer Richard Naidu has today said that he did not imply that the FijiFirst was behind the recent desecration of temples in the country.

Naidu had tweeted quote “Temple vandalized; Fiji Sun screams temple terror. This is about scaring Indo Fijian voters back to the arms of the FijiFirst Party” end quote.

When questioned by Fijivillage on whether he meant that the FijiFirst was behind the desecration of temples, Richard Naidu says this was not the case and he believes that there are no legal issues relating to what he had tweeted.

National Federation Party Leader, Professor Biman Prasad had retweeted Naidu’s comments and he has said that his retweets do not mean that he is endorsing the tweet.

Meanwhile, Fiji Labour Party’s Assistant General Secretary Aman Ravindra Singh has publicly alleged on Facebook that the Prime Minister and Attorney General are behind the temple attacks.

When questioned by Fijivillage on his allegation, Singh said that he has to comment later as he was travelling. He has not answered his phone despite numerous calls this afternoon.

We have also sought comments from the FijiFirst.

Still on social media,

SODELPA parliamentarian Mosese Bulitavu has already said that that he does not know the source of a video which he shared on Facebook, that shows a doctored interview of Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.

The video has been clearly edited and it is different from the original interview that was broadcast on Fiji One back in 2014.

It has parts where Bainimarama talks about the politics of fear and then certain parts are removed resulting in him only saying that if FijiFirst wins, after the elections you won’t be able to pray to Jesus. The same is being done when he says that they will get rid of the chiefs and forget about the rights of the Itaukei.

Bainimarama has continued to stress that the constitution guarantees freedom of religion and the state will not favour one religion over another, the chiefs continue to be chiefs in their villages and there are no changes and the land rights of the Itaukei are fully protected under the constitution.

When questioned by Fijivillage on the issue of sharing the doctored video, Bulitavu says he did not know that it was a fake video and he stresses that he has done nothing wrong.

He says he is not a source of the video, he did not reproduce it and he is only part of the group that shared the video.

Bulitavu also says that people should not just pick on him as other people also shared the video.

Neither the FijiFirst nor the Fiji Police Force have said anything today in relation to comments made in the social media about the Prime Minister and the Attorney General.