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Anti-government agitator claims he was paid by politicians

June 15, 2020 6:18 am

FBC CEO Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum [left] and Ferrel Khan

There are shocking revelations that high ranking politicians are allegedly behind anti-government social media posts.

Some of these posts threaten national security and incite racial tensions.

A man by the name of Ferrel Farizal Khan claiming to be the administrator of notorious Facebook page Fiji Exposed Forum and other similar sites, approached the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation in February, wanting to come clean about his dealings.

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Khan claims that he and a group of friends are behind the Fiji Exposed Forum Facebook page and at least five other pages.

“I was approached by Mr Sitiveni Rabuka, Mr Biman Prasad, Savenaca Narube just prior to the 2018 Elections and Mr Aman Ravindra Singh approached me from Labour Party.”


Ferrel Farizal Khan [Source: Facebook]

FBC Chief Executive Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum yesterday released audio recordings of the meeting where Khan admits to allegedly being on the payroll of some political parties.

Sayed-Khaiyum had two managers present in the room when this meeting took place on February 6th, and Khan also agreed to have the proceedings recorded.

“As you can imagine someone walks off the street and says I am the person doing this but he showed us that he could delete a negative FBC post and add a positive story on the Fiji Exposed Page.”


From left: Manager Radio Shammi Lochan, FBC CEO Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Manager Sales and Marketing Vijendra Kumar during the press conference.

Khan went on to claim that he was in the middle of organising a national protest against the FijiFirst government, but this was unsuccessful as he was arrested a day before the planned event.

“I was supposed to organise a protest which was totally funded by SODELPA on the 5th of January 2019.”

He also claims that civil servants were bribed to leak documents which were then used to create anti-government posts.

“Information was provided by the political parties. They would fork out information from the government officials that were civil servants working in government authorities. They would be paid by the political parties and then the information would be forwarded to us. Rabuka whenever I met him he would give me a thousand dollars or five hundred dollars and the same happened with Biman as well.”

In the recording, Khan explains that since coming out of prison, he has had a change of heart and wants to atone for his actions.

Following this meeting, FBC gave Khan a pen camera and told him to bring evidence of his claims, but four months later, nothing has been forthcoming.


Ferrel Farizal Khan [Source: Facebook]

Khan has also signed a Statutory Declaration claiming he met with Sitiveni Rabuka, Adi Litia (surname unknown) and Bani Kawale from the suspended SODELPA.

Also named in the document are Seini Nabou, Kamal Iyer and Dylan (surname unknown) of the National Federation Party.

Khan alleges he was paid accumulatively $12,000 via NFP cheques signed by Professor Biman Prasad and about $18,000 from Sitiveni Rabuka.

The Statutory Declaration also names other alleged administrators of anti-government Facebook pages including Aklesh Singh, Vinit Singh, Sylvia Kissun, Feroz Gulam Mohammed and one Rinesh who lives overseas.

Khan has also revealed that one former employee of the Attorney General’s Office leaked the AG’s salary document, confidential correspondence and internal information which was used to create fake posts about the Attorney General.


From left: Manager TV Operations Vinal Raj, Manager Radio Shammi Lochan, FBC CEO Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Manager Sales and Marketing Vijendra Kumar during the press conference.