A vast anti-corruption operation shakes Gabon and heads fall one after the other. Eight people have been placed under arrest warrant, announced Thursday, November 28 the prosecutor of Libreville, André Patrick Roponat. "There are prosecutions against compatriots for misappropriation of public funds and money laundering (...) There are eight people who were placed in pretrial detention at the prison, and others at liberty "the prosecutor said in a statement broadcast on national television.
In this Central African country regularly singled out in embezzlement cases, a new politico-legal soap opera broke out a few weeks ago. On a scale unprecedented this time, because touching the entourage of the former strongman of the Gabonese presidency, Brice Laccruche Alihanga. He was fired on November 7 from the post of cabinet director of the presidency of Ali Bongo Ondimba, a position he held for more than two years.
Serial arrests
After him, about twenty people were arrested, including the former director general of the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAMGS), Renaud Allogho Akoue, but also the director of presidential communication, Ike Ngouon, considered as the right arm Brice Laccruche.
Today a simple minister, the latter is low profile, while he had been steadily gaining influence since President Bongo's stroke in October 2018. But the vise seems to tighten, with the publication Wednesday. a double page in the pro-government daily Union claiming that more than 85 billion CFA francs (129 million euros) have "volatilized" in the last two years in the Gabon Oil compagny (GOC). A public company managed by a certain Patrichi Tanasa, close to Brice Laccruche, in police custody since Monday.
The Union's investigation targets the Dupont Consulting Company, a private company whose directors are the current Minister of Energy, Tony Ondo Mba, and the brother of Brice Laccruche, Gregory. The latter was arrested on Wednesday, told AFP a source close to power.
With AFP