The report circulating on social media, claiming that former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Ghafoor made pay-offs to President Mohamed Muizzu and Speaker Abdul Raheem Abdulla with funds misappropriated from the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), is false, the Maldives Police Service has said.
While no additional details were provided, the investigation report circulating on social media taking aim at the President and the Speaker was not valid, the police said — the leak on social media comprises four leaked pages of an alleged police report.
The report indicates that police had prepared to arrest former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom on 7 February 2016 after a court order was issued.
According to the report, the then-Housing Minister Muizzu had shared details of confidential meetings at the President’s Office and Cabinet deliberations, as well as confidential meetings at party level, with Commissioner of Police Abdulla Riyaz. Ghafoor paid Muizzu MVR 14 million, the report states.
It also links Abdulla to Ghafoor, stating that the former Vice President paid the current Speaker MVR 4 million to bring down the Yameen administration. Abdulla would be paid an additional MVR 16 million should Yameen be arrested as planned, the report stated — Abdulla was, at the time, the Member of Parliament for Laamu Fonadhoo.
A joint committee set up between the Parliament’s Security Services Committee and the Judiciary Committee probed the MMPRC scam and released a list, on 12 May 2021, of persons who received money within the scam — while Muizzu is not listed, Abdulla was paid in excess of MVR 1.7 million.
The report further contains allegations that leaders at state agencies, police and the army, at the time, planned to end the Yameen Presidency and place Yameen under arrest.
Additionally, the report mentions former Prosecutor General Muhthaz Muhsin, who had been appointed Criminal Justice Advisor to President Muizzu in January, and Mamigili court magistrate Ahmed Nihan — both had been jailed during the Yameen administration on terrorism charges.