The Congolese in general, and the Kinshasa people in particular, want to know a little more about the embezzlement and overbilling in the streetlight and drilling projects.
The Congolese and the Kinshasa people can only swear by the organization of such a trial, on the grounds that they are the real victims of this embezzlement and overbilling. Because, the outcome of this trial will allow them to know the real intellectual and material authors as well as the beneficiaries of this embezzlement and overbilling, who will be severely punished by law, to discourage such practices. And that will be justice.
Moreover, for the same case, two ministers of the outgoing government, namely, Nicolas Kazadi of Finance and François Rubota of Rural Development were cited in a damning report by the IGF – General Inspectorate of Finance. Unfortunately, while François Rubota is brooding at the CPRK – Penitentiary and Re-education Center of Kinshasa – former central prison of Makala, with businessman and entrepreneur Mike Kasenga, Nicolas Kazadi is breathing the fresh air of freedom, after having enjoyed a stay in Paris, for having presented health reasons to Justice.
Never mind! What could be more normal than organizing this long-awaited trial, now that Nicolas Kazadi is back home, after having regained his good looks in a Parisian hospital institution, having refused to be treated at the HGRK – Kinshasa General Reference Hospital -, ex-maman Yemo, the same one that he had nevertheless presented to the Congolese and Kinshasa residents as rehabilitated to international standards!
Trial also beneficial for Nicolas Kazadi and his associates
It is appropriate, however, to point out that this long-awaited public trial is not only to condemn Nicolas Kazadi, François Rubota and Mike Kasenga at all costs.
This same trial could also be beneficial for Nicolas Kazadi, François Rubota and Mike Kasenga, who, until now, in accordance with the law, enjoy the presumption of innocence, given that Justice has not yet declared them guilty. At the end of this trial, they could also be declared not guilty and cleared of all suspicion. Especially since, since the public outcry surrounding this case, Nicolas Kazadi, very confident in his innocence, always said he was ready to cooperate with Justice.
This is what had even pushed the National Assembly, during the plenary session of the closing of its ordinary parliamentary session of March, on June 15, 2024, to decide, after having heard him, to place the national deputy Nicolas Kazadi, former Minister of Finance, at the disposal of Justice for the investigation and not the prosecution.
Constant Mutamba arrested
The Minister of State for Justice and Keeper of the Seals, Constant Mutamba, has been in the news since he took over this sector, which was nevertheless labelled as sick by himself, the supreme magistrate, Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo.
Not a day goes by without the office of the head of the DRC Justice Department publishing a press release seeking to reform, revitalize and/or clean up its sector.
The latest press release was issued on Monday, July 22, 2024, announcing “the opening of a public trial against Mr. Corneille Nangaa Yobeluo and his accomplices, starting this Wednesday, July 24, 2024, before the Gombe Military Court” in Kinshasa.
As long as this trial falls within the framework of terrorist activities, war crimes and high treason committed in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the same press release, some objective analysts believe that the number one of the DRC Justice would do better to open and organize the public trial against the former national treasurer, Nicolas Kazadi, who is already back in Kinshasa, as well as the Minister of State François Rubota for Rural Development in the Sama Lukonde Government, and the economic operator Mike Kasenga, in the case of embezzlement and overbilling related to the streetlight and drilling projects.
To act differently, all the initiatives, however praiseworthy, taken so far by the young Turk of Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo would risk being classified as trompe-l’oeil and populism.
National Assembly, last lock
The request to the head of Justice to open and organize a public trial against the former Minister of Finance, Nicolas Kazadi, will, without a doubt, come up against the shield of the Lower House of Parliament, of which the latter is a member, in his capacity as national deputy.
In the sense that, as required by law, the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation cannot prosecute an elected representative of the people without first obtaining authorization for legal proceedings from the National Assembly. An authorization that is granted after the lifting of the parliamentary immunities of the national deputy by the National Assembly, after the latter, at the end of the hearing, has found serious suspicions and other evidence of guilt weighing on the elected representative indexed.
Very unfortunately and against all expectations, we are not there yet. Because, for the time being, Justice has only authorized the investigation and not the legal proceedings against the national deputy Nicolas Kazadi.
As if to say, the saga is still far from over on the case of embezzlement and overcharging in the streetlight and drilling projects. More than a textbook case, would the Bukanga Lonzo case not constitute, with a few exceptions, a case law?
/opinion-info.cd
2024-07-23 13:23:33
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