By Umaru Fofana
Sierra Leone’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) says it has launched an operation codenamed “Operation Thunderbolt” aimed at “routing and bringing to justice fugitive persons alleged to have been involved in corrupt acts and who are of interest” to the agency.
In a press release issued today, the anti-graft agency says a fugitive who fled to neighbouring Guinea in 2013 as he was being sought for an alleged corruption case, is now in detention.
Santigie Kargbo – a clearing and forwarding agent who was wanted in a corruption case involving a revenue authority official, Solomon Hindolo Katta and four others – was arrested over the weekend and becomes the first to be taken in under the new operation.
The five taxmen and bankers including a husband and wife, were convicted for misappropriating Le 360million ($51,000 at the current value) and were jailed in April 2014 for between three and six years as well as to pay fines and restitution of between US$ 10,000 and US$ 500,000.
The release says Kargbo had quietly returned to Sierra Leone and was arrested at his residence in the outskirts of the capital, Freetown.
It is not clear how long he had been back for before his arrest.
He is said to be also helping with investigations in a matter unrelated to the revenue tax fraud.
“I can assure the public that we have taken comprehensive steps to make these fugitives pay for their crimes” the ACC boss, Ady Macauly is quoted as saying.
The operation comes a week after the local chapter of Transparency International slammed the country saying,” Sierra Leone continues to face not only an intensification of corrupt acts, but also the negative impacts of corruption on the country’s national development drive”.
The head of TI-SL, Lavina Banduah wrote that the “prevalence of corruption over the years has led Sierra Leone…to be faced with a glaring economic crisis”.
She went on that “theft, fraud, embezzlement and misappropriation of development funds, the demand for bribes and extortion and similar vices have continued unabated”.
© Politico 2016
