Published on: 09/19/2022 – 16:50
Guy Nzouba-Ndama, former President of the National Assembly of Gabon and leader of the opposition party Les Démocrates, was arrested at a customs check on Saturday when he was returning from Congo-Brazzaville. The Gabonese gendarmes found 1.19 billion CFA francs or 1.5 million euros in his belongings. The public prosecutor’s office has initiated an investigation.
According to a close friend of Guy Nzouba-Ndama, the opponent is still in police custody and is due to be brought before prosecutors on Monday. This is pointed out by the assistant prosecutor of Franceville found the money in his luggage was confiscated by the gendarmerie and returned to the state treasury.
A report of “irregular possession of funds” was sent to prosecutors, where an investigation was launched, Blera Ibinga said. She referred to a regulation according to which amounts over one million Swiss francs must be declared to customs. An observer explains that on the contrary, since these were CFA francs circulating between the CEMAC countries, a control was not justified. However, Blera Ibinga clearly pointed out that the investigations should clarify in particular the origin and intended use of the funds.
“In terms of image, it’s catastrophic”
Guy Nzouba Ndama sees his image tarnished. Video of the incident went viral on the internet. We see the gendarmerie opening the suitcases of the former Speaker of Parliament. Revealing inside, thousands of banknotes. Within his party, The Democrats, a party official said he was “surprised and shocked at this kind of humiliation of a Republican dignitary.” “You can’t fault him for anything,” he says.
An opponent believes that customs officials were probably “briefed by an informant” and that “the search was authorized at high levels”. Still, a “responsible person at this level walking around with so much money is unacceptable,” he said.
Almost the majority thinks that “the image is catastrophic. Especially since many people struggle to make ends meet. The latter points the finger at a man “for sale”, “supplement to a foreign power” and “paid for by foreigners”, giving credence to the thesis of possible funding of the Gabonese opposition by the Congolese authorities. “It poses a problem of independence and sovereignty,” he added.
No comment on the Brazzaville site. But a source speaks of an internal affair in Gabon. “Guy Nzouba Ndama may have had a war chest in the Congo with money accumulated while he was in office,” confides this interviewee, who speaks of a “sense of amateurishness” when he sees a high-ranking politician with suitcases full of banknotes crossing a border.
I would also like to add that briefcases are as old as the world. We all learned that briefcases circulated between France and Gabon. I saw African opponents, who were received by the President of the Republic, whom I do not want to mention here, come out with briefcases.
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