Modou Ceesay, the head of the National Audit Office was on Monday frogmarched from his office by the police, five days after rejecting an appointment as trade minister by President Adama Barrow.
There was chaotic scenes inside the offices of the National Audit Office on Monday morning as staff attempted to form a human shield around their boss to prevent him being whisked away.
Nonetheless, the Auditor General whose office was behind an avalanche of revelations of institutional corruption was led away by three personnel of the Police Intervention Unit who abruptly interrupted an interactive session he was having with journalists in his office.
Apparently irate NAO employees who were not impressed, challenged the arresting officers, insisting that they explain why they were taking him away.
After a lengthy period of bedlam, Ceesay was literally frogmarched by the officers against the loud protest of NAO employees who described his treatment as an affront on accountability and transparency.
Ceesay is credited with setting up a special investigative unit at the NAO tasked with unearthing financial improprieties in several government department to the apparent discomfiture of those on high.
Last Wednesday, he had turned down an appointment as trade minister in a letter to President Barrow which stated that he was content with maintaining his role as Auditor General.
Information minister Ismaila Ceesay later issued a statement claiming that the the Auditor General had initially accepted the appointment only to make an unexpected U-turn a day later to the chagrin of the government.
His appointment was part of a mild cabinet reshuffle which saw trade minister Baboucarr Ousmaila Joof transferred to the Ministry of Defense.
Cherno Amadou Sowe was appointed in Ceesay’s place as Auditor General while Masireh K. Drammeh as Acting Director of Internal Audit.
WN/as/APA