Senegal’s former Youth Minister Pape Malick Ndour has been arrested by the Criminal Investigations Division (DIC) as part of a probe led by the Financial Judicial Taskforce into alleged misappropriation of public funds tied to the Community Agricultural Domains Program (PRODAC).
This is according to multiple sources cited by L’Observateur newspaper.
The arrest follows a supplementary indictment issued by the financial prosecutor, extending an ongoing inquiry into the management of the agricultural program.
Ndour is reportedly under investigation for embezzlement of public funds, criminal conspiracy, and money laundering. An accounting audit commissioned in January and extended in March is said to have uncovered financial irregularities in some of the project’s transactions.
In a separate case, Ndour also faces proceedings for “acts likely to undermine state institutions”, linked to remarks made during a public demonstration on October 18. His associates have denounced the arrest as arbitrary and politically motivated.
A former coordinator of the PRODAC and a prominent figure in the previous administration, Ndour had already been questioned over the same case in 2020, before being cleared of any wrongdoing.
His latest arrest marks a new phase in the ongoing investigation into the management of the PRODAC, a program long criticised for lack of transparency.
DM/ac/lb/as/APA