RUSLAN OBIANG, SON OF WORLD’S SERVING PRESIDENT, TEODORO OBIANG ARRESTED.
Written by AIGBOKHAEBHO OKHUELEIGBE on January 17, 2023
Son of Equatorial Guinea’s President, Ruslan Obiang Nsue, has been arrested and placed under house arrest on suspicion of selling a plane belonging to the country’s national airline, state television (TVGE) said Tuesday.
Ruslan Obiang Nsue, whose iron-fisted father President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled since 1979, was detained on Monday and placed under house arrest.
At the end of November, the authorities had opened an investigation “after noticing the disappearance of the ATR 72-500 aircraft belonging to the national company”, Ceiba Intercontinental, which was since 2018 in routine revision in Spain, explained TVGE.
Ruslan’s half brother, Teodorin said on twitter:
Ruslan Obiang has confessed that he was the person who sold Ceiba’s ATR, I will not allow myself to be carried away by familialism or favouritism, which is why I have ordered his immediate arrest and handing him over to justice.
I am not going to let myself be swayed by family ties or favouritism, and this is why I ordered his immediate arrest and for him to be handed over to justice.
President Obiang, is the longest-serving head of state alive today, monarchs excluded.
He seized power in August 1979, toppling his uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, who was then executed by firing squad.
Firmly suppressing dissent and surviving a string of attempted coups, Obiang has remained at the helm of the oil-rich central African state ever since.
But the wealth is concentrated in the hands of just a few and four-fifths of the population of 1.4 million live below the poverty line, according to World Bank figures.
The country also has a reputation for graft, ranking 172 out of 180 nations on Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index.
News about the disappearance of the airliner, and its suspected sale, emerged in December, triggering a wave of indignation.
