The head of the anti-corruption commission in the West African nation of Sierra Leone has confirmed that former Vice President, Victor Foh, together with the former Mines Minister, Minkailu Mansaray have been arrested on charges of corruption.

Current President Julius Maada Bio had appointed a separate commission to look into what it describes as ”rampant” corruption under his predecessor, Ernest Koroma which includes the siphoning off state funds and redirecting state contracts to relatives and close friends of government officials.

Francis Ben Kaifala, the head of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC)  said Foh and Mansaray would be released on bail on Thursday.

Former president Koroma is still to respond on the accusations levied at former members of his cabinet but the APC (All Peoples Congress) party has dismissed the recent development as a political vendetta.

Following a national election in March, President Julius M. Bio defeated the APC’s flagbearer and promised to fight corruption and revamp the ailing economy that was devastated by the 2014 outbreak of the Ebola epidemic and a fall in the prices of commodity at the level of the international market.

In a report published by the presidential commission, it says widespread corruption and the mismanagement of the economy under Koroma had left Sierra Leone on the brink of collapse with a burgeoning foreign debt which IS nearly half its GDP.

Neba Benson,

BaretaNews Foreign Correspondent/Analyst