Mame Mbaye Niang declared yesterday that he filed a complaint against Ousmane Sonko for defamation, as part of the so-called Prodac 29 billion case.The war between MameMbayeNiang and OusmaneSonko is open.At a press conference yesterday, the Minister of Tourism and Leisure announced that he had filed a complaint for defamation against OusmaneSonko.« I filed a complaint today (yesterday) at the level of the prosecutor so that Mr.OusmaneSonko produces this report of the Ige (General State Inspectorate).It will not be the same.It’s not like it used to be.We are in a country of law.OusmaneSonko in his presentation, said to have a report of the General Inspectorate of State that would have pinned me, report relating to the contract passed by the program of the so-called community activities for the construction of community agricultural estates, » said MameMbayeNiang.For him, this complaint is an opportunity for the « leader of Pastef to dust off the report of the Ige that pins me and that he says he holds, to present it to justice ».« For someone who aspires to lead a country, he should know the basics of administration.This would have allowed him to understand that in a technical supervision, especially for a project, assimilated to an agency and which has a supervisory board, before the minister in charge, such exercises of shenanigans cannot be done, » he said.MameMbayeNiang insisted on his innocence.« I have nothing to reproach myself.I reiterate that there is no report that pins me.I appeal to Sonko‘s dignity to go, without pushing a Mortal Kombat, to dust off the Ige report he says he holds, » he insisted.MameMbayeNiang, who faced the same accusations in the National Assembly on Monday during the vote on the budget of his ministry, assured that he is willing to resign from all his positions and surrender to justice.« If it is he who tells the truth in this story, at the appropriate time, I am ready to renounce any privilege of jurisdiction and I will submit to justice, » he promised.He added: « It is true that the great masters of the French language are not accessible to me.However, let me remind you that I am an air traffic controller and technology engineer.I also have three other skills that allow me to audit and control airports.(….) When I was an air traffic controller, Sonko came out of ENA and what I earned was twice as important. »A statement following Sonko‘s remarks that Minister Niang does not speak French properly.This case was born following the statements of the leader of Pastef who assured that the former Minister of Youth was pinned in the case of the 29 billion CFA francs of the Program of community domains by a report of the General Inspectorate of State (IGF) at the time, which was declassified in 2018 by the then Finance Minister Amadou Ba.
In February 2017, a mission from the General Inspectorate of Finance was sent to Prodac to verify the financial management of this program initiated by President Sall to boost youth employment in rural areas.With the program, it was planned the development of 30 thousand hectares and the enrolment of 300 thousand young people in the Community Agricultural Estates (Dac) located in Séfa (region of Sédhiou), Keur Samba Kâne (Diourbel), KeurMomarSarr (Louga) and Itato (Kedougou) for a total cost of 29 billion 600 million CFA francs.The project was executed by the Israeli organisation Green 2000, with funding managed by Khadim Ba’s Locafrique.It was the delays in the disbursement of Locafrique that had been the basis for sending the IGF to control Prodac.By Bocar SAKHO / 
bsakho@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH