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Mulivai village not consulted about casino

The pulenu’u (mayor) of Mulivai, Safata, Tafa Aukusitino has not been consulted about the Government’s plan to allow a Chinese company to build a casino on 500 acres in their village.Asked by the Samoa Observer on Saturday if he was excited about the prospect of jobs and having such a large tourism property in their midst, Tafa said yes.“Some people don’t really support it but I feel that there will be benefits for us in terms of jobs,” he said. “I guess the hotel and casino will prevent our people from going overseas to find employment.”But the village mayor was somewhat baffled as to how such a plan could gain so much momentum with consultation with himself or the Village Council.He said he has only heard about the Casino on TV.“We haven’t met (with the Chinese company),” he said. “There’s been talk about a casino being built in our village. Our villagers only saw it on television but we haven’t been officially informed.“We haven’t had any negotiation with the company.”The pulenu’u said the company might have met with “Leota Su’atele” but “they haven’t met with us and we haven’t had a village meeting about it.”It was not possible to obtain a comment from Leota Su’atele yesterday.