Another Fijian has come forward and claimed that National Federation Party Member of Parliament and provisional candidate Parmod Chand had made controversial remarks about Muslims in Fiji.

Ranadi Matakibau, 55, of Vunivutu in Nadogo, Macuata was yesterday interviewed by the Fiji Sun where she claimed that she was at a meeting in Vunivutu where Mr Chand spoke and allegedly made some remarks on ‘Muslims taking over Fiji’.

Ms Matakibau speaking in Fiji Hindi and iTaukei said she has a good understanding of Hindi and was sure of what she heard Mr Chand say.

The mother of six alleged: “The night the NFP came to the village, a few men and women were present at the meeting. There were a lot of big things Parmod said during that meeting. One of major thing he said was about the Government. He said about Muslims running the Government. He said that one day iTaukei will no longer own land because Muslims will come and take over our land. He said we should be careful.

“He said one day everything that belongs to the iTaukei will not belong to us. He said if we choose his party he would improve our roads, buses, sugarcane farms and those that have lost their sugarcane farms will have a sugarcane farm again.

“He said that only Muslims will lead our Government especially if FijiFirst wins this upcoming election. We just stared at him when he said this because we don’t know how this news came about. Maybe because Mr (Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum) Sayed-Khaiyum is in the party. When he said this, it instilled fear in us,” she alleged.

Mr Chand through his lawyer Richard Naidu denied making these remarks.

NFP leader Biman Chand had earlier said they would comment only after their investigations are completed. He however has not given a timeframe on by when they expect the investigations to be completed.

When contacted last night, Mr Chand said he was in a meeting. His leader Mr Prasad did not answer calls made to his phone nor responded to questions emailed.

Edited by Mohammed Zulfikar

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