Niger: Former President Tandja Jailed

18 January 2011
allAfrica.com

As Niger launched campaigning ahead of presidential and legislative elections on January 31, the ruling junta revealed that former president Mamadou Tandja has been jailed on allegations of corruption.

Radio France Internationale reports that Tandja has been accused on many counts of embezzlement of public funds and was transferred to prison on January 16. He spent his first night at the Kollo prison situated some 30 kilometres from Niamey.

The development came as no surprise to the people of Niger, said RFI - he had previously been linked to various corrupt practices, most recently after nearly four billion Central African Francs went missing from the Société Nigérienne de produits pétroliers (Sonidep, the Niger petroleum corporation).

RFI reported that Tandja had become a problem for the junta after a West African regional court, acting on a petition from his family, ordered his unconditional release if no formal charges were brought against him.

He no longer enjoys immunity and has been incarcerated in an administrative block in Kollo prison.

Translated and adapted by Michael Tantoh: Mamadou Tandja, l'ex-président incarcéré pour corruption

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