Property ‘a transit home’

Opposition MP Salote Radrodro says her Tacirua Heights property was maintained as a transit home when she moved to Namulomulo Village, Bua in June 2019.

She said this under cross examination by Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) commissioner Rashmi Aslam.

Her trial by FICAC continued in the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court in Suva yesterday before judge Justice Dr Thushara Kumarage.

Mrs Radrodro said she and her husband bought land in the Tacirua Heights subdivision in the late 1980s, when she and her husband were still living and working in Labasa, and the house was built in the early 1990s.

She said the land was bought and the house was built for the convenience of work and their children’s education.

Mrs Radrodro said apart from her eldest son who attended Queen Victoria School, the rest of her children were raised there and went to schools in Suva.

She said in the year 2000 they built their house in Namulomulo Village, where they had a farm and intended to eventually retire.

The Namulomulo house was their “forever home”, to strengthen their family, vanua and lotu links to the village.

She said she and her family were always members of the Peceliema Methodist Church at the village before moving to Tacirua, where she was also a congregant of the Methodist Church.

She attended either places of worship, depending on where she was at a particular point in time.

Mrs Radrodro said when they were in Namulomulo the Tacirua house was empty, unless relatives occupied the house.

The family considered it a transit home, and was a place to stay when she was in Suva for Parliament work.

Mrs Radrodro said they intended to sell the house and retire to Namulomulo one day.