Selormey Released From Custody

Ghana's former deputy finance minister Victor Selormey was released on Monday, after being held for questioning over the granting of a two-million dollar credit facility, police said.

Selormey was arrested on Sunday by officials from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), a senior security source told AFP.

The ex-deputy minister who served in the government of former president Jerry Rawlings, was arrested at the Kotoko International Airport in Accra when he arrived from an overseas trip.

Selormey was taken in for questioning over the alleged wrongful disbursement of a two-million dollar facility from the US export credit agency, Exim Bank, a BNI official said.

In an interview with local radio, Ghana's former deputy justice minister, Martin Amidu said BNI personnel "violated Victor Selormey's human rights in the manner he was arrested like a common criminal."

Amidu said Selormey was not allowed to use his mobile phone before he was whisked away.

The former official also said that police had advised Selormey to report to them, but did not call for his arrest.

Amidu said the arrest was "part of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government's strategy of intimidating and persecuting members of the former government and some functionaries of the NDC (the former ruling National Democratic Congress."

Rawlings, who ruled Ghana for 19 years, stepped down in January after his hand-picked successor was defeated by NPP leader, John Kufuor.

President Kufuor has pledged to clean up government finances.