Adeyinka Olaiya, Sao Paulo, Brazil/
Vice President Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue of Equatorial Guinea has been detained in Brazil after security agents found additional undeclared $50million (CFA28, 220, 966, 856. 50) hidden in one of the boxes in the private jet that he flew from Malabo to Viracorpos Airport.
NewsmakersNG had reported that undeclared $1.4million (CFA 790, 146, 980.65), R$55, 000 and 20 sophisticated wristwatches worth about $14 million were earlier found on the controversial Vice President, who was last year given a 3-year suspended prison sentence by a French court that convicted him of corruption and also ordered the confiscation of his Paris mansion and other assets worth about £100 million, after Swiss authorities had also seized 11 luxury cars from him following allegations of money laundering in 2016.
NewsmakersNG learnt that the Brazilian authorities detained Teodorin, who is serving as Equatorial Guinea’s vice-president in charge of defence and security matters, since yesterday based on the possibilities of discovering more crimes.
Teodorin is the son of Africa’s longest-serving leader and dictator, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been president of the tiny oil-rich West-African country for 38 years.
In 2016, Swiss prosecutors opened an investigation on Teodorin after 8 landings with his private jet in Geneva. His 11 luxury cars were seized at Geneva airport. Before that in 2011 and 2012 both USA and French authorities filed complaints against Teodorin, based on spending US$315 million on properties and luxury goods, funded by an official salary of less than $100,000 per year. He was indicted on several counts of corruption and money-laundering and his mansions in Paris and Malibu were confiscated and sold at auction.
After his earlier release on Saturday, security agents received more information from the INTERPOL that the Vice President has been on the investigation list since years back and should not be allowed to exit Brazil without a proper investigation of the reasons he came to the country.
Police authorities said that they had communicated with the father and every legal assistance are being offered through the consulate general of Equatorial Guinea in Brazil.
While approaching the boxes where hard currencies were hidden during the internal search of the aircraft yesterday, the personal guards of the Vice President had tried to force their way in, but the police denied them access to the suitcases.
According to Wikipedia, since the mid-1990s, Equatorial Guinea has become one of sub-Saharan Africa‘s largest oil producers. It is the richest country per capita in Africa, and its gross domestic product (GDP) adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita ranks 43rd in the world; however, the wealth is distributed extremely unevenly, and few people have benefited from the oil riches. The country ranked 135th on the UN’s 2016 Human Development Index. The UN says that less than half of the population has access to clean drinking water and that 20 per cent of children dies before reaching the age of five.
The country’s authoritarian government is cited as having one of the worst human rights records in the world, consistently ranking among the “worst of the worst” in Freedom House‘s annual survey of political and civil rights. Reporters Without Borders ranks President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo among its “predators” of press freedom.
Human trafficking has also been identified as a significant problem in Equatorial Guinea. The 2012 U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report stated that Equatorial Guinea “is a source and destination for women and children subjected to forced labour and forced sex trafficking.” The report rates Equatorial Guinea as a government that “does not fully comply with minimum standards and is not making significant efforts to do so.
