The hearings and the cascading imprisonment of the mayors of the commune and the districts in the commune of Bobo-Dioulasso, pose a problem all the same. With legitimacy, one can ask the question of whether it is only in Bobo-Dioulasso that mayors and municipal councilors have clumsily managed public funds.
One can also wonder because everything suggests that it is in Bobo-Dioulasso that justice is diligent in dealing with issues of mismanagement by municipal councilors and mayors. Better still, we can still believe that it is only in Bobo-Dioulasso that the institutions and bodies fighting against corruption and bad governance of public funds are effective in tracking down or crunching the mayor.
Indeed, the first of the borough mayors to be imprisoned on February 10, 2021 is Sirima Herman, mayor of borough 7 while still in office. He had been accused of fraud, appearance offences, acceptance of undue gifts, money laundering and stellionat within the framework of a case of sale of plots. He spent at least nine months in prison before being released on bail. Until now, he is awaiting his judgement. While Sirima was in prison, it was the 23 municipal councilors on her council who were prosecuted for accepting undue gifts, in this case plots. The case is pending before a court in Ouagadougou.
After him, it is Bakoné Millogo, ex-mayor of arrondissement 4 to be summoned, auditioned and put in the plate on December 23, 2022. He is also accused of facts of flagrante delicto of corruption and acceptance improper gifts. To this first indictment was added a second relating to practically the same facts, namely money laundering and abuse of office.
On May 23, it was the turn of Sitlè Hippolyte Sanou, ex-mayor of arrondissement 6, to be dropped off at the Bobo-Dioulasso remand center. He is accused of acts of nepotism and abuse of office. Clearly, the court accuses him of having used his position as mayor to make decisions that are not his responsibility and of having offered favors to relatives when they were not entitled to them.
While Sitlè Hippolyte and Bakoné Millogo were still in the ties of justice, it was Bourahima Sanou, the former mayor of the commune himself, who was charged and deposed on May 29 at the House of arrest and corruption of Bobo-Dioulasso. Former mayor Bourahima Sanou is accused of illicit enrichment, abuse of office, money laundering and acceptance of undue gifts. When we know that the mayors of arrondissements 2 and 3 are in the crosshairs of justice, we should not be surprised to see them in front of the prosecution and taken to the house of arrest.
While it is true that everyone must answer for their actions before the courts, it is also true that it is certainly not only in Bobo-Dioulasso that there have been breaches of orthodoxy in the financial management of funds public. SO !
Dabaoué Audrianne KANI
