For now, neither the number nor the identity of the defendants have been specified by the Niamey prosecutor's office, which is in charge of the case. But according to the local press, around fifteen people would be prosecuted and other people are still being questioned by investigators.

The main perpetrator of this embezzlement is already in prison since last May. He is accused of having removed these eight billion CFA francs between 2017 and 2021 using "false payment authorization letters". In mid-July, Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum revealed that he had ordered an inspection of the Treasury to investigate these fund embezzlements, which targeted "an agent of the transportation service of the presidency of the Republic".

And this report uncovered a chain of alleged complicity involving senior Treasury officials, politicians and ministers, still according to the Nigerien press. Contacted by RFI, Ali Idrissa, head of the Network of Organizations for Transparency and Budget Analysis, a network of NGOs advocating for greater transparency, claims that this "new case is evidence of the poor governance of the former regime" of Mahamadou Issoufou. "Everyone who is involved must be held accountable, he says, and not just a few lower-ranking agents."