AfDB appoints three-man panel to review report on Adesina’s probe

The African Development Bank (AfDB) said it had commissioned a body of three people to undertake an independent assessment of the report of the ethics committee on the allegations against the bank’s president, Akinwunmi Adesina.

In a statement issued by its bureau of board of governors on Wednesday, the AfDB disclosed that it agreed on the terms of reference for the review during the meetings it held on 18th June and 1st July.

Pressure to formally indict the Nigerian head of the AfDB has escalated since late May after the U.S., a stakeholder in the Abidjan-based lender, declined an initial investigation conducted by the bank’s officials into accusations of favouritism and breach of corporate governance against him and demanded a fresh probe by professional outsiders.

Read also: AfDB board resolves to engage neutral investigator for Adesina’s probe

The AfDB declared yesterday it had appointed Hassan B. Jallow, Mary Robinson and Leonard F. McCarthy, who would form “a high-level panel of independent experts to conduct the said review.”

According to the document, endorsed by Niale Kaba, Governor for Côte d’Ivoire, the bureau affirms its trust and confidence in the panel’s capacity to accomplish the task while pledging its backing for the committee’s activities.

It is expected that the panel will hand in its findings to the bureau between two and three weeks.

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