Ex-Senegal officials held over graft

DAKAR, Tuesday

Former officials in ex-President Abdoulaye Wade’s government have been arrested over corruption.

Investigations against the former officials resumed in Dakar yesterday after temporary detention of two leading figures on Monday.

On Thursday, the investigation was briefly suspended after Mr Ousmane Ngom, a former powerful interior minister of ex-President Wade was arrested and detained for 24 hours after he allegedly snubbed a police summon.

Those currently in “preventive custody” since Monday are Mr Ndongo Diaw, former director general of the post and telecommunication regulatory agency and Mr Moustapha Yacine Guèye of privately-owned Millennium Transnational Limited.

Both men are accused of swindling millions of dollars through a special tax imposed on telephone calls from abroad into Senegal.

The two are being held alongside Mr Mamadou Ba, who was the treasury inspector of the post and telecommunication regulatory agency.