Investigators who decoded the Pastef party leader’s phones uncovered his relationships with people very close to power, as well as respectable figures in the media. And, it’s not finished yet…

Ousmane Sonko announced the day before yesterday that during his arrest, questioning gendarmes confiscated, in addition to his firearms, the 4 telephones he had in his possession at the time, as well as his laptop. The leader of the Pastef party, in a posting on his Facebook page, warned that the gendarmes would be able to plant anything there, and that it did not commit him. It is understandable that the opponent already understood the scope of certain discoveries that the security services were going to make in his devices, as well as their consequences.

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And things didn’t take long. As of yesterday, elements drawn from the devices of Ousmane Sonko began to leak in Dakar, sowing terror on several levels. Security services are said to have managed to decipher the WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal accounts of the most influential Yewwi askan wi (Yaw) leader, and see the ramifications of his supporters, both locally and internationally. Members of the security services, who speak under the seal of anonymity, indicate that the tracing of the encrypted messages in the 4 devices (and not only 2, as the « Patriot » in chief wanted to make believe), indicate that the support for the « Project » of the leader of the Pastef party in the maquis of Casamance was far from being just a figment of the mind of certain editorialists or politicians in lack of sensation.

Some connections are said to be so vast that they could, if confirmed, amount to high treason.

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Nevertheless, at the moment, what seems worrying are the local contacts. The agents who went through the couriers of Ousmane Sonko noted strong collusion between the first opponent of Macky Sall’ and certain collaborators closest to the President of the Republic. The names of certain ministers have even been indicated. Le Quotidien refrains from publishing them until these people have been formally blacklisted. But it would seem that some of the individuals cited have been trying since yesterday to get closer to the investigators, to try to see to what extent the phones seized would have implicated them.

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Apart from members of the government and those close to power who wear eating from two racks, there would also be the cases of certain members of the media whose very close proximity to Ousmane Sonko has just been revealed. If for some of them, this has been an open secret for long, on the other hand the others seem to fall on the investigators from the clouds. Some journalists were at the limit maintained by Ousmane Sonko. The latter’s Orange Money and Wave accounts revealed regular payments of varying amounts to these media agents.

We can believe that since Ousmane Sonko was placed in solitary confinement, it is not only members of his close family who have restless nights.

By Mohamed GUEYE / mgueye@lequotidien.sn

• Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH / Serigne S. DIAGNE