The Catholic Church in Si’usega is demanding a public apology from Papalii Panoa Tavita the former Chief Executive Officer of the National Provident Fund, over his public comments the church used SNPF lands for its raffle but never paid for it.
The public apology call was made by the Human Rights Protection Party leader, Tuilaepa Dr Sailele Malielegaoi in a press conference this week.
Papalii claims the lands in question are located in Aleisa and it happened some years ago during his time as CEO of the fund when Tuilaepa was Prime Minister.
Adding that his comments followed Tuilaepa continuously attacking him personally after being warned that he will not sit idle if it happens again and he’s ready to take the HRPp leader to court for defamation.
However, Tuilaepa said the allegations against his church will not be taken lightly and they intend to take this matter to court and have given Papalii a week to make amends.
“Our church demands a public apology this week after [Papalii’s] public claims. We have lawyers in our church and they are not happy with what he said as they also paid money for the land in question, hence we cannot let this go. It’s evident that [Papalii] continues to accuse people.
“This should be a lesson to Papali’i,” said Tuilaepa.
But Papalii said the allegations were made against the leader of the HRPP, not the church.
