NFP Provisional Candidate Denies FB Post

Another provisional candidate has come forward to conveniently claim that fake accounts had been made in his name and that he has not uttered anything untoward on Facebook. National Federation Party’s Feroz Gulam Mohamed is not new to controversies involving Facebook posts.

Yesterday, the Fiji Sun sent a screenshot of an account from which posts questioning the qualification of three prominent Muslims to party leader Biman Prasad. At 11.50am the email was sent to Mr Prasad asking him whether what was posted was the party’s policy.

A call was made to Mr Prasad at 2.24pm during which he confirmed he had asked Mr Mohammed to meet him and explain the post. At 4.23pm the account from which the post was made was deactivated. Mr Prasad in his response to the email said:

“Mr Feroz Gulam Mohammed was summoned to the NFP headquarters and asked by the NFP leader about the post in question. He denied posting such a comment saying it was not his official Facebook Account.

“He said there were four Facebook Accounts under his name, but only one was his official account while three others were fake accounts, despite carrying his picture and mobile number, but created from a different email.

“We have sighted his official page where he is described as a politician and entrepreneur. It does not carry any Muslim or racial post but posts from last week’s Budget session.

“He has gone to report the matter of Fake Accounts being used to denigrate his name to Police. “In the meantime, our social media experts are investigating the matter beyond the establishment of the fact that Mr Mohamed’s official page is different from the one which carries the post.

“We re-iterate that we do not condone racism in any form whatsoever. We have made this absolutely clear both in and outside of Parliament. “This has been emphasised in no uncertain terms to our provisional candidates and that any breach of this principle will result in their candidacy withdrawn.

“In Mr Feroz Gulam Mohamed’s case, any decision will only be made once this issue is thoroughly investigated,” he said.

This is not the first time a political party candidate has claimed his account was hacked or a fake account was created.

This is the grey area involving social networking sites such as Facebook. There is no accountability.

If Police are to investigate this in a bid to clear Mr Mohamed’s name, there are a few things that need to be taken into account.

Will Mr Mohamed hand over his phones, laptops, tablets and personal computers over?

Will he also hand over devices used by his family members?

If he is keen to get an all clear and put this matter to rest, he should be open to this kind of scrutiny. And not just him. All candidates should be open to any investigation if it clears their names.

Deleting browser history will not help, there are ways to get to the bottom of this.