Although the i-Taukei Affairs Board , Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Apakuki Kurusiga has confirmed that chiefs and villagers do not have the legal authority to exile someone from a village concerns continue to be raised in relation to this issue.
Kurusiga had said that chiefs or villagers do not have any legal authority or power to do this.
This comes after the village council of Nabulini in Wainibuka, Tailevu has also decided to exile people who are found planting marijuana in their farms.
Roko Tui Tailevu, Semisi Saukawa says the decision was made by elders in Nabulini after police uprooted more than four hundred plants of marijuana earlier this year.
Saukawa says the village council had decided that those who are found cultivating marijuana would be exiled from the village for five years.
Meanwhile, the Fiji Police Force continues to recommend to chiefs and villagers that they should allow the legal process to take its course and inform Police immediately about the crimes being committed by the villagers before they make the decision to exile them.
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