Committed members of SODELPA are glad Ro Filipe and his group have finally left SODELPA - Radrodro

SODELPA Acting Deputy Leader, Aseri Radrodro says they are glad that Ro Filipe Tuisawau and his group have finally left SODELPA because their history is certainly not in SODELPA and they, the committed members of SODELPA are grateful that they have finally shown their hands and pursued the political journey that is their right to pursue.

Ro Filipe and 7 other former SODELPA MPs have applied to join the People's Alliance.

They are Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, Inosi Kuridrani, Ratu Antonio Lalabalavu, Mitieli Bulanauca, Peceli Vosanibola, Ratu Tevita Navurelevu and Jese Saukuru.

Radrodro says SODELPA had given some of them, not only the platform to become politicians, but to also get into the Parliament of the Republic of Fiji, and it is unfortunate that Ro Filipe has chosen to run down the party as he resigns from SODELPA along with his group of defectors.

He says it would have been professional and the right thing to do, to simply leave SODELPA, even well before the Writ was called, given their allegiance to SODELPA was already evidently gone.

Radrodro says it must not be forgotten that had it not been for SODELPA and the late Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase in 2018, some of these so-called politicians would not have emerged into the arena of politics in this 21st century.

He says SODELPA is appalled that Ro Filipe and his group have consistently blamed loyal party members of SODELPA, for reporting those SODELPA MPs implicated by the FICAC investigations for alleged allowance abuse and now he has the audacity to repeat these claims to the media.

Radrodro says this is a dangerous and an unwarranted accusation that is also a blatant lie and he demands that he either produces the evidence to support this wild claims he is making, or he be seen as a liar and someone desperate to find himself a reason to explain why they are deserting the ship that carried them these last 4 years.

He adds they must thank SODELPA for giving them a platform to make their name in politics, and so they need not forget the hand that fed them and their families.

Radrodro says he is urging Ro Filipe and his group to refrain from maligning SODELPA and its team, because they can also choose to do the same, but that will not benefit anyone, least of all their voters who deserve better from all of them.

Ro Filipe says he will comment on this matter now.

On December 3rd 2020, FICAC said in a statement that in June that year, FICAC confirmed receiving the initial complaint referred by the then Acting Secretary General of Parliament regarding the alleged breach of the Parliamentary Remunerations Act of 2014.

FICAC said thereafter, a second complaint was lodged by a faction of SODELPA also alleging similar breaches by their own members.