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The Senegalese Ministry of Justice ordered an investigation Monday in a BBC report, claiming that the president's brother had benefited greatly from an agreement awarding contracts to the British energy giant BP in the sector. gas.
The ministry's statement calling for a "full investigation" was released a week after the start of the BBC's investigation on June 3 and caused widespread public outcry in this impoverished country of Africa. West, where oil and gas discoveries over the last five years have fueled public expectation vis-à-vis windfall.
In its report, the BBC said that shortly after his election in 2012, President Macky Sall awarded a contract to his predecessor, granting rights to operate on two gas fields to Timis Corporation, a company controlled by an Australian-Romanian businessman, Frank Timis.
BP paid Timis Corp. $ 250 million (222 million euros) and a commitment to pay approximately $ 10 billion over 40 years, he said.
The British television channel said the Timis Corp. had secretly paid a $ 250,000 bonus to Agritrans, a company controlled by Sall's younger brother, Aliou Sall, also employed by the Timis group at $ 25,000 a month. salary.
Aliou resigned in October 2016 after being accused of a conflict of interest by the opposition. He was appointed to head a state-run savings bank, the CDC, in 2017.
He denied the report and said he would sue the BBC for defamation.
BP also denied the accusations, calling the BBC report "fake".
The head of BP in Senegal, Geraud Moussarie, said Thursday at a press conference that the gas contract figures were "confidential", but called the amount of the benefits reported "so false and exaggerated that & # 39; 39, it is a complete fantasy ".
He also rejected the idea that Senegal was deceived.
Call for US and UK probes
President Sall suggested that the BBC report was an attempt to "destabilize" the country. He added that he wanted the truth to be "re-established" but "we will not accept false accusations".
In his statement on Monday, the Justice Ministry said the Attorney General had been charged with the investigation, "aware of the need to keep Senegalese informed about the management of natural resources".
She mentioned a document circulating on social media which, without being authenticated, was supposed to be a secret government report of 2012 pointing to shortcomings in the way the gas contract was awarded.
The main opposition coalition, the FRN, has called on US and British authorities to open an investigation, knowing that BP's shares are traded in both countries and that it "was not expected nothing "from the Senegalese investigation.
The FRN has asked Aliou Sall to step down and the 2012 government report be declbadified.
Various badociations called Friday for a demonstration, urging the Senegalese in the capital and elsewhere to demonstrate for the alleged acts.
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