Dakar, Jan 18 (APS) – The weekend delivery of the daily press mainly deals with the investigations opened by the Financial Judicial Pool in several cases linked to accountability.
“The judicial machine is now in motion against people involved in economic and financial offenses, in particular money laundering. With the investigation announced by the prosecution of the Financial Judicial Pool following the report from the National Financial Information Processing Unit (Centif), things seem to be changing with the arrival of the new regime,” underlines L’Observateur.
The national financial prosecutor’s office “is carrying out an enormous amount of work, sometimes in the shadows”, comments the daily L’As on this subject, before revealing, quoting El Hadj Alioune Abdoulaye Sylla, financial public prosecutor , that to date, 87 files have been transmitted to the investigating judges.
“As I speak to you,” he said, “in terms of seizures and guarantees, we are at an amount of 2.5 billion CFA francs in addition to the vehicles seized and entrusted to ONRAC.” the National Office for the Recovery of Criminal Assets.
”Without fanfare, the Financial Judicial Pool (PJF) is carrying out a titanic task. The recently installed magistrates put the pedal on the accelerator in order to go through the numerous files that awaited them,” we can also read in the columns of the daily L’As.
The newspaper in turn quotes the financial public prosecutor, according to whom ”already 91 files have been processed promptly within the framework of financial management, of which 87 were transmitted to the investigating judges of the PJF” to continue investigations”.
At the same time, the magistrate “brushed aside” any idea of settling political scores. ”People summoned who gave bail benefited from provisional release, he confided in comments reported by the AS. When you are summoned to the Financial Judicial Pool, it is not necessarily as an accused. We can hear you for N reasons”.
”The judicial machine is now in motion against people involved in economic and financial offenses, in particular money laundering. With the investigation announced by the prosecution of the Financial Judicial Pool following the report from the National Financial Information Processing Unit (Centif), things seem to be changing with the arrival of the new regime,” underlines L’Observateur.
L’As returns to an emblematic case, which concerns the deputy Mouhamadou Ngom known as Farba. ”One more step was taken yesterday [vendredi] towards the lifting of this MP’s parliamentary immunity, the newspaper reports. ”The countdown [a été] triggered”, displays Sud Quotidien on its front page. ”The fate of Farba Ngom now in the hands of the ad hoc commission [de l’Assemblée nationale] composed of 11 members including 9 from Pastef, 1 from the Takku-Wallu group and one non-member, writes Sud Quotidien.
-”Farba on a slippery slope”, headlines the newspaper Le Quotidien. ”he was not heard. But he learned. He does not know what he is being accused of, but the procedure for the lifting of his parliamentary immunity has been initiated by the National Assembly at the request of the Minister of Justice, notes Le Quotidien.
”So, adds this publication, two precautions are better than one. Farba Ngom intends to defend himself to the end”, so he has ”already formed a pool of lawyers of four tenors of the bar. These are Mes Doudou Ndoye, Baboucar Cissé, Alassane Cissé and Jacques Pascal Gomis, who also know nothing about the case opened against their client.
Walfquotidien reports that Farba Ngom’s lawyers have already “pointed out a procedural flaw” and deplored the “haste of the State” in this matter. They say they have ”noted several irregularities” in this case, adds the daily Enquête, which displays: ”Towards a legal standoff”.
”While the National Assembly examines the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of MP Mouhamadou Ngom, alias Farba, accused of money laundering to the tune of 125 billion CFA francs, the collective of his lawyers stepped up to the plate this Friday ”, to ”express their concerns about what they consider to be a procedure with many gray areas,” writes Enquête.
According to his lawyers, Farba Ngom ”was never heard by Centif nor singled out. Me Doudou Ndoye [en particulier] regrets the fact that his client has not received any official notification of what he is accused of, while the procedure for lifting his parliamentary immunity is underway,” reports the daily L’As.
There is also the case of Tabaski Ngom, former accounting officer of the Energy Sector Regulatory Commission, who was questioned by the Criminal Investigation Division (DIC), for suspicion of retroactive charges. The Observer affirms that during her interrogation, this Treasury inspector “revealed the stratagem which allowed her to withdraw 766,740,000 CFA francs from the accounts of the Bgfi and the Cbao”.
BK/SBS
