Federal Police have arrested Mitiku Kassa, Commissioner of the National Disaster Risk Management Commission of Ethiopia, on suspicion of corruption, a state-run television says.
The arrest was made on Wednesday following a major investigation on a corruption case involving Mitiku and a non-governmental organization called Elshadai.
Deputy commissioner Tadesse Ayalew of the Federal Police told EBC that the NGO received food and other aid items “on several occasions” claiming to provide support to “non-existent” internally displaced people in Awash, Adama, Hawassa, Enjibara, and other places.
The NGO later sold the aid items and bought a house for the commissioner using the money it raised from the sale, according to the federal police.
Mitiku is among the Federal Government officials that stayed in office for more than a decade and served under three consecutive prime ministers as head of disaster management offices.
He was first appointed in 2008 as a fourth state minister of agriculture in charge of the then Disaster Prevention and Preparedness and Food Security Department, established under the ministry.
Following the reestablishment of the department as an autonomous Federal Government office in December 2015, Mitiku became the chief of the National Disaster Risk Management Commission of Ethiopia – a position he has held until today.
