In the latest spill of words, Tonga's former Minister for Internal Affairs ‘Akosita Lavulavu - who was sacked by the Prime Minister last week following fraud charges, spoke of her humiliation when another Minister replaced her at a Pacific Sports Ministers Meeting in Fiji.

'Akosita responded with a press statement on April 16 to issues raised by the Prime Minister Hon ‘Akilisi Pohiva publicly last week. 'Akosita said she was advised of a telephone direction from the PM that she vacate her seat and for the Minister for Commerce to represent Tonga instead, during the meeting held last month.

"I was the Minister responsible for Sports in Tonga and there was a Cabinet decision that I represent Tonga….I decided to withhold the ship’s sail and sacrifice whatever rights I had to sustain peace at the meeting."

She said the PM had said this was not supposed to happen and had already apologized to her in Cabinet with this other Minister present.

However, she wanted to ensure the truth reached people.

'Akosita said her grounds for not acceding to the PM’s advice for voluntary resignation was because it was unconstitutional for him to compel anyone to resign temporarily from a Minister’s appointment, as there was no such thing as "temporary resignation".

She said compelling a Minister to resign due to criminal offence prosecution, while still deemed innocent until proven guilty was wrong.

Dismissal

Meanwhile, a press release from the Prime Minister's Office dated April 12 released today on the subject of the Minister's dismissal, said Tonga Police had arrested ‘Akosita, and her husband, ‘Etuate  Lavulavu and charged them with three counts of obtaining money by false pretences, and three counts of knowingly dealing with forged documents.

The Magistrate’s Court adjourned the Lavulavu case to May 28.

The PM said he had several one-on-one meetings with the Minister in which he tried to persuade her to voluntarily resign from Cabinet because of the criminal charges but she refused.

“Cabinet had also discussed the issue several times, and the rest of the Cabinet Ministers supported my request that she should have resigned voluntarily. But she refused. So that left me no choice but to request His Majesty to revoke her appointment."