SOMALIA: I was Threatened and Blackmailed says Somalia’s resigned Central Bank Governor

Nairobi (Raxanreeb Online) Days after her resignation made the headlines Yussur Abrar says she was threatened and blackmailed by businessmen close to president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s family.

“They were trying to compel me to sign contracts worth of millions which prompted my resignation” she said according to different media sources in Somalia.

Deputy Chief of Staff at the Presidency Thaabit who is also a very close family to the president, a close relative and major businessman Muse Ganjab, Abdi Aziz “Amalow” Giyajo, a representative at Shullman Rogers were involved the threatening of Mrs Abrar according to senior member at Villa Somalia.

In her letter to Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Somalia’s president, she said: “From the moment I was appointed, I have continuously been asked to sanction deals and violate my fiduciary responsibility to the Somali people as head of the nation’s monetary authority.” Financial times reported.

According to officials in Somalia She feared for her life following threats from business-tycoons associated with the Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

Somalia’s central bank governor has resigned less than two months into the job, citing pressure to authorise improper deals, diplomats said following her resignation.

“These men are related to the president” said different media sources in the country.

The departure of Yussur Abrar, the first woman to occupy the post, is a blow to foreign donors pumping billions of dollars in aid money into a Horn of Africa country grappling with an Islamist insurgency.

One senior diplomat said the resignation of Abrar had rattled donors who have said cleaner management of public finances is vital to securing a fragile economic recovery, debt relief and budget support.

“What [Abrar’s resignation] has done is woken up a lot of people,” said one senior European diplomat. “The notion that there is a blank check for Somalia, that’s over. There’s got to be results for money.”

His comments were echoed by two other diplomats and by one source with a close knowledge of Somalia affairs.

Raxanreeb made several phone calls to Somali officials but were not yet answered, Reuters also made repeated attempts to contact them since last week. Abrar did not respond to an email sent to her by Reuters.
RBC