Tamiru Tsige

Corruption crackdown continues as the number of suspects who are placed under custody reaches 55 as of yesterday.

In what could be considered to be a major crackdown on corruption in the past few years, the Federal and Addis Ababa Police have apprehend some 39 government officials, brokers and businesspersons in the middle of the week and charged them with corruption, which involves more than 1.15 billion birr.

Veteran opposition politician, Merera Gudina, chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), appeared before the Federal First Instance Court at Arada on Thursday and denied any terrorism ties and the allegations made in connection with his November 30 arrest after his return from Brussels, Belgium.

Merera Gudina (PhD), an old hand in Ethiopian opposition politics and Chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), a member party of the four-party front — the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum (Medrek) has been arrested right after his return from a trip to the European capital, Brussels, on Wednesday.

Dr. Fikru Maru, the high-profile cardiologist who was convicted on corruption charges, was indicted along with 37 other suspects for starting the deadly fire that broke out in the Qilinto federal penitentiary on September 3 that led to the death of 23 inmates and razed property worth 15 million Birr.

A defense engineering student along with 16 accomplices were charged under Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism proclamation for allegedly plotting to bomb the national air force radar as well as the engineering college in Bishoftu town of the Oromia Regional State.

Leaders of Blue Party, one of the strongest opposition to the ruling coalition Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), are accusing each other over embezzled party properties.

More than 400 shops and business centers in Gondar, a historical town in Northern Ethiopia and the epicenter of recent political unrest and protests, have been burnt down to the ground on Thursday with 100 million birr (provisional estimates) in properties vanishing into thin air in a single day.

Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn removed Mekuria Haile, Minister of Housing and Urban Development, this week ahead of the much anticipated government overhauling reform process scheduled for September.

The Import-Export general manager and member of the committee that approves foreign exchange allocation at the Cooperative Bank of Oromia (CBO), Birhanu Weldesenbet Negera, has been suspected of corruption and has been detained on Monday.