Mauritius President Gurib-Fakim to resign – lawyer
March 18, 2018
Africa’s only female head of state, Mauritian President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, has resigned and will leave office on Friday, her lawyer says.
Ms Gurib-Fakim has been engulfed by an expenses scandal.
She denied any misconduct amid claims that she made large personal purchases on a charity bank card.
But on Saturday, just days after she rejected any idea of resigning, her lawyer Yusuf Mohamed told local media she would be stepping down.
The president has issued no statement.
The country’s prime minister had originally said she would stand down last Monday.
When Ms Gurib-Fakim failed to do so, this led to fears of a constitutional crisis on the Indian Ocean island nation.
Local L’Express newspaper reported in February that the country’s first female president, a renowned scientist, had used a credit card given to her by the Planet Earth Institute (PEI) in London to buy jewellery and clothes abroad.
According to the paper, she was given the card for serving as the NGO’s unpaid director and it was to be used to pay for the promotion of a doctorate programme named after the president.
Ms Gurib-Fakim’s office said she “had an identical credit card from the same bank [and] inadvertently used the card from the PEI for expenses not linked to her mission”.
It added that $27,000 (£19,335) had been refunded and Ms Gurib-Fakim would defend herself with “legal action”.
In a statement to the BBC, PEI London said that Ms Gurib-Fakim had refunded the money to its Mauritian sister organisation.
The organisation said it had given her a credit card to cover travel expenses while promoting African science, technology and innovation.
*BBC
Nkemnji Global Tech
Featured
Mozambique: Two killed in collapse of illegal mine in Cabo Delgado.
Pan African Visions | January 26, 2021 8:38 am
Being and Becoming African as a Permanent Work in Progress:Inspiration from Chinua Achebe’s Proverbs
Pan African Visions | January 26, 2021 8:27 am
PROPHET LOVY ANNOUNCES OPENING OF NEW WORSHIP CENTRE.
Pan African Visions | January 24, 2021 10:51 am
Cameroon: Achiri Victor, DavLinks Launches Online Platforms to Market Cameroonian Movies
Pan African Visions | January 23, 2021 10:07 pm
Recent News
-
eLife Publishes AIMS Researcher’s Paper on HIV Treatment
January 26, 2021 7:05 pm
-
Rwanda denies existence of unofficial military detention centers
January 26, 2021 5:03 pm
-
The National Question and the Quest for Restructuring in Nigeria
January 26, 2021 9:26 am
-
Cuban health workers arrive in Mozambique to fight covid-19
January 26, 2021 8:43 am
-
Mozambique: Two killed in collapse of illegal mine in Cabo Delgado.
January 26, 2021 8:38 am
Leave a Reply