CAF President Ahmad Ahmad was picked up by the police at a hotel in Paris on Thursday, a day after his organisation concluded an emergency meeting of its Executive Committee in France.
Paris-based pan-African weekly newspaper, Jeune Afrique, claims that Ahmad’s arrest was in connection with a “contract unilaterally broken by CAF with the German equipment manufacturer Puma to engage with the company Technical Steel, based in La Seyne-sur-Mer, France.”
The report indicated that the 59-year-old CAF’s boss was paid a total of €739 000 ($830,000) by one of the Technical Steel’s bosses to sanction the deal.
French radio RFI reported that Ahmad will be heard by the services of the central office for the fight against corruption and financial and fiscal offences (OCLIF) in France.
In an earlier statement, Ahmad said the deal with Technical Steel was clean and properly executed.
“The contract with Technical Steel was done transparently. The funds involved were officially approved by CAF. I regret that some people are attempting to hamper our efforts to revamp the image of CAF,” Ahmad said.
