Former deputy commissioner Fiji Corrections Service: Police commissioner a 'corrupt opportunist'

A MOMENT IN TIME: Ioane Naivalurua and his Acting Deputy Orisi Katonibau in October 2010. pic Fiji Correction Service website

In a week where an unnamed officer has implicated police commissioner Ioane Naivalurua and his top two deputies (Henry Brown and Isikeli Ligairi) in an international drug racket, the former acting deputy commissioner of the Fiji Corrections Service has agreed to go on record about what he says is Naivalurua's corrupt and opportunistic behaviour.

Orisi Vuki Katonibau says he does not want to hide behind a mask. He told Coupfourpointfive Naivalurua is an 'opportunist who has left  a legacy of corruption, manipulation and hypocrisy unparalleled in the history of leadership of the Fiji Corrections Service.'

Katonibau's on the record criticism comes as police insiders insist the police commissioner is linked to the Toorak CID break in, claiming he left last Monday on an unexplained unofficial trip to Hong Kong.

Naivalurua's critics want him investigated but say Pio Tikoduadua, the permanent secretary for the PM's office, tipped Naivalurua off to the anonymous letter spilling the dirt on the January 12 shipment of cocaine, leading to the drugs unit being threatened and Naivalurua trying to cover his tracks.

In a letter titled Naivalurua's Legacy in the Fiji Corrections Service, Orisi Kantonibau confirms earlier revelations about Naivalurua's unpopularity over senior officers being sidelined in favour of young, inexperienced officers, forced departures, alleged backhanders and nepotism with wife Kesia Naivalurua having her finger in the Correction Service's pie.

CID break in an 'inside job'

Scene of the crime: CID HQ in Toorak. pic Matavuvale

Stumped: Rusiate Tudravu. file pic.

Embarrassed Fiji police are looking for leads to the Criminal Investigations Department break in but it's looking like an inside job. 

Other sources have now confirmed our story the break in had to be someone or people who knew the layout of HQ and had access.

Side view of CID.

A fresh source has told us theft from the CID HQ is estimated to be about FJD7 million dollars over a one year period and includes drugs like cocaine, heroin, pill drugs, marijuana as well as hard cash recovered from Chinese raids, jewellery etc.

Today, we initially quoted a police source saying CID HQ in Toorak is a secure location and all doors and windows are re-inforced with bars with someone on standby 24 hours a day. Key doors can also only be opened with entry pin codes.

The insider told us there is no way someone can break into CID without being caught as only certain personnel are allowed in the building. 

High Court judge gets 'marching orders' despite 'sacrifices'

Sosefo Inoke in 2009 the day he was sworn in along with Gates

Leaked correspondence from inside the judiciary tonight confirms what the ordinary Fijian already knows - the regime is a law unto itself and there is no such thing as an independent judiciary.

Emails (leaked to C4.5 by moles) between a leading High Court judge, Sosefo Inoke, and the illegal Chief Justice, Tony Gates, also shows how things may well have played out for some of the Sri Lankan judges who've left these shores so abruptly.

Correspondence between Inoke and Gates over the decision to not renew his three year contract confirms outside hands at play within the Fiji judiciary. The strings, as we've always known, are being pulled from way above Gates, by none other than Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum.

A reply from Gates to Inoke dated April 20:

“Thank you for setting out your work in the Division.  It is highly commendable, and you have clearly driven many improvements at the Lautoka High Court.

"Having referred the matter at your request, I have received the same decision back.  Regrettably therefore I must inform you that the decision I had communicated to you before, stands”.

Inoke was appointed by the former president Josefa Iloilo for three years: in fact, he was sworn in at the same time as Daniel Goundar, Davendra Pathik and Anthony Gates were reappointed after the Constitution was abrogated in 2009.

In his letter to Gates about his contract, Inoke acknowledges the unpopularity of those working for the Fiji judiciary today rather plaintively:

"All legalities aside, what seems to have been lost in all this are the personal sacrifices that I, and my fellow local judicial officers in the same situation that I am in, have made in service to our country and the ridicule that we have had to put up with in the last three years.

"We put our hands up as called upon when others shied away.  We have had to put up with being called “illegal Judge”, “illegal Magistrate” and worse, but despite all that, we have proven them all wrong.  And what do we get in return? Our marching orders.  I feel used for some people’s own personal vendettas and agendas.

Goundar heading to Sydney

Goundar: Accused of directing FICAC

Fiji's 'hanging judge' Daniel Goundar has put his Naroro Road property (close to Nazhat Shameem's house) on the market for $320,000 and is heading to Australia.

He has sold his green Camry to his cousin who owns Annan Motors for $17,000 and is expected to leave the second week of June to reunite with his family in Sydney.

He is purportedly going on study leave but reliable Court sources say he was asked to resign after the Bano case and after the illegal Prime Minister's office received two sworn affidavits from FICAC officers saying he was constantly in touch with FICAC prosecutor, George Langman, and FICAC consultant, Nazhat Shameem, each afternoon after the day's proceedings had ended - directing FICAC who to call, what questions to ask and what not to ask.

Fiji soldiers released after brief detention

 A Fijian soldier serving for the MFO

Conflicting reports this morning of ten Fiji peacekeeping  soldiers being captured by Bedouins in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

International reports say they were detained briefly in the Sinai region where the security situation has deteriorated since a popular uprising ousted the president, Hosni Mubarak, more than a year ago.

The reports said the Fiji soldiers were part of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) and were eventually released but the circumstances were unclear.

 

"Bedouins told the MFO members who were driving by that the main road was closed. They led them to an unknown area and refused to let them leave," said a security source in North Sinai's Security Directorate.

Climbing the wall to democracy? Another Fijian peacekeeper

Reports said the MFO could not be reached for comment, while state TV and the state news agency MENA denied the incident ever took place.

MENA, however later, cited its own security source as saying the troops had in fact got lost but had later found their way home without any problems.

Ten Fijian soldiers captured in Sinai

Bedouin have kidnapped 10 Fijian members of an international peacekeeping force in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, security sources say.

The kidnappers are reportedly demanding the authorities release from prison several fellow tribesmen, some of whom have been convicted of terrorism.

Letter implicates Fiji police commissioner in international drug racket

Naivalurua

Brown

A letter from a police officer to the illegal prime minister accuses the police commissioner, Ioane Naivalurua, of aiding and abetting Trans-border drug smuggling from China to Fiji and New Zealand.

In the letter titled Re: Disclosure of Extracts for Abuse of Power and Office by Commissioner of Police, the unnamed officer says the consignment of cocaine and narcotics was brought into Fiji on January 12 under Naivalurua's name and cleared by border police without checking.

Ligairi

Police commissioner deputies Henry Brown and Isikeli Ligairi (or Sekeli Lageri as he is named in the letter) are accused alongside Naivalurua.

In the letter dated April16, the unnamed officer says the drugs were delivered to Fiji's well-known drug lord, Setoki Cei Turaga in Toorak, Suva. He says Turaga was subsequently placed under surveillance and that mobile phone conversations between Turaga, Naivalurua, Brown and Lageri were recorded by the drugs unit intelligence team.