The village mayor of Faleasiu, Apulu Tauoleo'o Vaiana and three other chiefs of the village have disputed allegations regarding Aana Alofai No.1's member of parliament Fesolai Apulu Tuigamala and the use of the $1million grant.

Apulu, Sauvao Poese, Fesolai Suia and Fesolai Nuutele visited the Samoa Observer office on Thursday to clarify that the issues regarding their district's $1million district development project are "not true".

"We are here to verify that these allegations are not true as it has shocked the village and everything that this old man, Sauvaoi Tapoti Maiava has claimed regarding the project," Sauvao said.

"The village have yet to discuss these issues in the meeting and the meeting was postponed so it was never discussed therefore they are not correct.

"We are here also to clear that this is not what the whole village thinks as I said before, it hasn't been discussed yet and the member of parliament is still yet to meet with the village on these issues so for the readers of the newspaper and the whole of Samoa, these are all not true."

Sauvao was backed by his fellow village chiefs who stressed that all the village's traditional policies prevent matters pertaining to the village, from being released to the media or to anyone before it is being discussed within the village council and meetings.

"All these accusations and claims will be proven once the MP gets back from his (ministerial) trip overseas in October and when he meets with the village because he has a lot of meetings that's why he couldn't attend the other meeting," Sauvao added.

The dispute comes at the back of allegations brought forth by one of the oldest and paramount chiefs in the village who chaired the village meeting that was postponed on Monday, Sauvaoi Kapiti Maiava in a previous interview with this newspaper.

According to Sauvaoi, the Faleasiu village council is awaiting an explanation from their M.P. on how he used funds disbursed under the constituency's SAT$1 million district development grant. 

This was in regards to the council's concerns that funding from the grant is allegedly being misused amid claims also that there is bias in how the funds are being disbursed to villagers – allegations which the Aana Alofi No. 1 M.P. Fesola'i Apulu Tuigamala, who is also the Associate Minister for Justice and Courts Administration, had also disputed.

Sauvaoi said the village called several meetings including one on Monday this week but the M.P. did not turn up and emphasized that the village has been kept in the dark about project allocations and operations since the inception of the district development grant, which has given rise to allegations of misuse and bias in funding allocation.

Sauvaoi pointed to specific allocations under the fund such as the disbursement of $300 to heads of each families, $10 registration fee to access the funds, and a fishing boat promise for the constituency.

The MP when contacted by this newspaper on Tuesday, denied the accusation that he was not attending the village council meetings and explained that miscommunication led to his absence.

"We only planned to do that (buy a fishing boat) as something to develop the district but it did not go as planned and no fund has been allocated from the project to buy a fishing boat," he said. "There are some fishing boats belonging to members of the district committee that we are sharing at the moment.

"But we haven't allocated any funds from the project yet for a fishing boat because we are prioritising other things such as schools and agricultural projects or developments first for now."

Meanwhile, the village mayor and the three chiefs on Thursday said the village will meet again to discuss these matters and why it appeared din the media before it was discussed in the village meeting.