40 Arrested In a Major Crackdown On METEC and Intelligence Officials

Ethiopia’s government arrested more than 40 senior and junior officials from METEC (Metals and Engineering Corporation) and Intelligence agency. The arrest took place after the officials were invited to attend a meeting on November 09 at the former Imperial Hotel building which is currently owned by METEC and renamed to Amoraw Building. So far there has been no statement given by the government about the arrest. But the arrest is likely to be related to corruption probe.

Among the jailed officials listed on Ethiopia Live Updates General Hadegu Gebre Selassie, General Tena Qurendina are some of them. 

Prime Minister Abiy and METEC

During his early days in office Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took some serious measures on the corporation resulting in the firing of its CEO and forcing the corporation to layoff projects related to sugar and GERD electro-mechanical works.

In one of his speeches, the prime minister blamed the corporation for taking projects like GERD without even seeing a dam that looks like it. The PM next move with METEC was to restructure the corporation into two entities as civil and military works. Following that the corporation was renamed into and National Industrial Engineering Corporation.

METEC and MEDIA

In defense to corruption allegation, the former METEC CEO Kinfe Dagnaw gave an exclusive interview to Nahoo TV defending his administration and the organization. In his interview, the former CEO dismissed allegations related to taking advance money despite project completion and called METEC as a failure as failed people. 

Contrary to Kinfe Dangew statement diaspora based media Wazema Radio published a series of articles exposing the malfunction and rampant corruption that were prevalent at the organization. The exposing details include the disappearance of the airplane and ships that were purchased by the organization, the purchasing of 200 houses to officials within its organization and several others.

Social Media Reaction

After the news broke several on social media expressed their happiness over the arrest and hailed Abiy for his bold move in taking down on one of his major promises since he took office. In his tweet, Redwan shared the news and gave a thumbs up for the action.

The GAME has officially began. Police started detaining former MeTEC leaders and members of intellegence.? https://t.co/iEirUdUpoE— Redwan Jemal (@RedwanJemall) November 10, 2018

Activist Athnaf mocked the arrestees with #FreeMETEC40 hashtag while adding a serious not that calls for a fair trial.  

Different from the above commentators Tigray Express called the arrest an abduction and demanded justice for the arrestees.