Minister for Commerce Faiyaz Koya [Source: Parliament of the Republic of Fiji]

Minister for Commerce Faiyaz Koya has stated that all iTaukei land is protected under the Fijian Constitution.

Responding to claims made by Opposition MP Niko Nawaikula during the debate on an Audit of the Land Management programme, Koya highlighted the Constitution recognizes the indigenous people’s ownership of the land.

Comments made by Nawaikula was labelled as ridiculous.

“How can you go beyond this, what he is talking about is preposterous and beyond that, the indigenous people or the itaukei peoples land is protected by the virtue of this constitution, it is protected like it’s never been protected before.”

Nawaikula claims they had entrusted TLTB to fight for their rights.

 “So they have passed this law to establish another unit to duplicate this law without consulting us without obtaining our prior consent and all this time TLTB has been sitting down, we entrusted TLTB to work for us to fight for our rights to negotiate, so we are asking why hasn’t the TLTB board questioned the government on its motives concerning this law.”

Koya says comments made by Nawaikula are wrong and he is once again targeting TLTB.

He says our economy has been relying on the tourism industry and the Ministry of Agriculture along with the Ministry of Economy that has been promoting diversification.

Koya says the land use division has been a critical component in the diversification as the landowners are giving their land that can be used for large scale farming.