Libreville, Wednesday October 4, 2023 (Infos Gabon) – In an interview given to Radio France Internationale, the Minister of Justice, Paul-Marie Gondjout explains the sanitation of public life underway in the country.
From the outset, the Minister of Justice wishes to establish public opinion on the merits of Operation “Dignity” set up by the Transition authorities in Gabon. According to Paul-Marie Gondjout, this is far from being a political purge, even less targeted against a category of people as some tend to believe.
“There were flagrant offenses which will lead to further investigations. The public prosecutor will tell us what the situation is, whether or not people who have committed crimes have been arrested,” he underlines. Before specifying that Ali Bongo Ondimba is not the subject of any prosecution. “The outgoing President of the Republic was released by the Transition and Restoration of Institutions Committee. For the moment, no proceedings have been initiated against him. If in the course of events, there are elements that allow this to be done, we will then advise, but for the moment I think that nothing has been brought against him,” he specifies.
For the Minister of Justice, the reactivation of the task force will shed more light on the State’s debt. “We are not going to focus on one person but on a system that has left the country dry. So, we must not direct things towards one person when there are others. There are notorious facts that have been brought to light. Money that was found in houses, in an indecent manner. There is the task force to verify a certain number of things on the state debt and the misdeeds that could have been committed, with ramifications in Gabon and outside. There will obviously be commissions that will be set up to search wherever necessary for everything that has been done,” explains Paul-Marie Gondjout.
According to the speaker, the current operation aims to clean up the management of public finances from the mismanagement that had taken place until then. “Gabon has been robbed. State finances are in dire straits. The fact that there are people who have certainly hidden Gabonese money outside the country, we will have to find this money. This “Dignity” operation makes us discover many incredible things. It is a system which has put the country in a state of disarray. It was a bit like a grocery store where they could help themselves as much as they could. Now, the grocery store manager is actually asking for accounts to be made,” he insists.
FIN/INFOSGABON/SM/2023
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