Equatorial Guinea has announced it will install surveillance cameras in all government offices following leaked sex tapes involving head of the country’s anti-graft agency, Baltasar Engonga.
Mr Engonga is director general of the country’s Anti-graft National Agency for Financial Investigation (ANIF).
Investigators were searching his home and office as part of a probe into alleged fraud when they discovered hundreds of explicit videos featuring Engonga and multiple women.
Among the discoveries were sex tapes of Engonga seemingly having romps with his brother’s wife, his cousin, the sister of the president of Equatorial Guinea, the wife of the director general of police, and about 20 wives of ministers, among others.
The now viral videos were filmed in his office, hotels, and toilets — allegedly with the consent of participants.
Announcing the government’s decision on Monday via X, Equatorial Guinea’s Vice President Teodoro Nguema said the government would take “severe measures” against such acts.
“Today, we will proceed with the immediate suspension of all officials who have had sexual relations in the offices of the country’s ministries,” the statement reads.
“The Government will take severe measures against these acts, since it constitutes a flagrant violation of the Code of Conduct and the Public Ethics Law.
“This action is a decisive step in our policy of zero tolerance towards behaviors that undermine the integrity of the public service.
“Ethics and respect are fundamental in our administration, and we will not allow irresponsible behavior to compromise public trust.
“Responsibility and professionalism must be the pillars of our work as servants of the State.”
In a follow up post on Tuesday, the vice-president said the government would soon install surveillance cameras in all government offices.
“We have taken this measure to ensure compliance with the law on public officials and to eradicate improper and illicit behaviour,” he said.
“We will not admit any fault that denigrates the integrity of our administration and those who engage in these practices will face drastic measures.”
Also, the government has restricted its citizens from downloading and sharing multimedia files using mobile data on WhatsApp.
This decision was followed by the guidelines that the country’s government gave to telecommunications operators when it urged them to implement measures to restrict access to inappropriate content.
Local news platform Ahora EG reported that the citizens have been lamenting their inability to share photos, videos, and audio when using a mobile data connection, leading users to rely exclusively on WiFi networks to share such content.
