Sierra Leone’s anti-corruption commission says a former vice president and former minister have been arrested as the West African nation’s new leader takes aim at graft.
Commission spokesman Abubakarr Turay says former Vice President Victor Foh and former Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources Minkailu Mansaray were detained Thursday.
The arrests are related to allegations of corruption linked to a pilgrimage last year to the Muslim holy city of Mecca. Mansaray was head of the Hajj committee, while Foh, a supervisor, is accused of mishandling some funds withdrawn from the $800,000 Hajj account.
The two were members of former President Ernest Bai Koroma’s administration.
The arrests came after a transition team presented a report to new President Julius Maada Bio outlining investigations into practices by Koroma’s administration.
