The African Development Bank (AfDB) announced Thursday evening, the launch of an independent investigation into allegations of prevarication against its president, Nigerian Akinwumi Adesina, the only candidate for re-election to a new term.

“The Board (of Governors of the AfDB) agreed to authorize an independent review of the “whistleblowers’ “allegations” against Mr. Adesina, according to a statement the Board’s bureau chairperson, Nialé Kaba, made at the end of a new meeting of the Board’s bureau on Thursday.

The charges were outrightly refuted by Mr. Adesina, 60, the first Nigerian to head the AfDB since its creation in 1964, who has repeatedly claimed his “innocence” and was quickly exonerated by the Bank on the basis of a report by its internal ethics committee.

“Mystification and Smoking”

But the United States, the AfDB’s second largest shareholder after Nigeria, demanded at the end of May that an independent investigation be launched, calling into question, in a scathing letter from US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the work of the ethics committee, and provoking a serious crisis in the pan-African institution.

“Considering the scope, seriousness and accuracy of the allegations against the Bank’s sole leadership candidate for the next five years, we believe that a more thorough investigation is necessary to ensure that the AfDB president enjoys the full support and confidence of shareholders,” Mr. Mnuchin wrote.

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