Niger: Minister of Communication Mahamadou Zada imprisoned for embezzlement
Guards in front of a prison in Niamey.
(Illustration) AFP - STR
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2 mins
Communication Minister Mahamadou Zada was imprisoned in Kollo prison.
Heard on Tuesday, April 19 by an investigating judge from the economic and financial center, he was placed under a warrant for embezzlement of money before he entered the government.
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With our correspondent in Niamey
,
Moussa Kaka
It is the first time in
Niger
that a minister in office has been imprisoned.
Minister Mahamadou Zada has just spent his first night in the civil prison of Kollo, not far from the capital.
Placed under a warrant on Tuesday by the investigating judge of the economic and financial pole, he is accused of embezzlement of public funds.
The accusation relates to a sum of 3 billion CFA francs belonging to the Société du patrimoine des mines du Niger (Sopamin), a state company he headed before he was appointed Minister of Communication.
This sum was to be placed in a microfinance cooperative called Taanadi and generate profits.
But the amount of money was not recorded in the cooperative's accounting books.
The judge is still looking for traces of these billions.
Fight against corruption
Several agents of Taanadi are under arrest and Minister Mahamadou Zada is not supported by his party, the Patriotic Movement for the Republic (MPR), where he held the post of secretary general.
It is not either by the government and must justify the investment of 3 billion CFA francs.
In his inauguration speech, President Mohamed Bazoum had underlined that he made the fight against corruption and the embezzlement of public funds
his hobbyhorse
: "
Anyone who has a responsibility in the administration will henceforth answer alone for his acts, in the event that his behavior should require a coercive measure against him
”.
In Niger, more than thirty senior state officials are already behind bars during this first year of the president's mandate.
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