Rhodes oil plants case: the HAT focusing public attention over… Tiko.

Following the repatriation of 300 tons of Rhodes Oil Plants seized by the comorian authorities, the HAT had to produce a reaction. The issue is first and foremost a matter of reputation since the whole transitional is now being accused of promoting the depredation of primary forests’ precious wood. In spite of the measures announced by the authorities, some twenty tons of precious wood would be depredated every day from the Analanjirofo region’s forests. 

The big communication operation operated by the HAT Prime minister in the Comoros was finally not that good for his government. Camille Vital’s zeal excesses rather caused doubts, or even suspicions. The decision to take the cargo back to Antananarivo on security concerns in Mahajanga would hint that the government does not have complete authority on the whole territory. 

A black list of top transitional figures involved in the Rhodes Oil plants case was expected, but the HAT found the parade. Ambohitsorohitra’s communication department moves to Sambaina. In addition, the Home Security Agency, increasingly playing a political police’s role has been legally allowed to search areas. 

So was the surprise broadcasted on the TVM waves, the Rhodes Oil Plants case is involving Marc Ravalomanana. The HAT’s communication department’s reporters, working for a media group supportive of or belonging to Andry Rajoelina, have closely covered the Home Security Agency’s search of Tiko’s sawmill in Sambaina. According to the communiqué, recovering the Rhodes Oil Plant logs was not easy. 

The details: 155 Rhodes Oil Plant logs, 165 processed ones. The HAT squad equally seized ornaments made for mirrors and windows, as well as a wooden statue of the Japanese emperor. 

In order to make a long matter short, this factory belonging to Tiko is processing Rhodes Oil Plants. Is this illegal. Nothing is less sure. The HAT propaganda machine insisted on the fact that this activity was held secret, and that logs were not easy to find, some of them having allegedly been hidden in a lake.  The legal ban basically concerns only raw precious wood exports. A factory processing raw material is, on this account, no crime at all.  The dictating authorities recognized, however, that having to deal with some storage facilities was a possibility since they exceptionally allowed the exports of logs. 

Did the Tiko corporation have to export its  Rhodes Oil Plants logs while the HAT allowed it to, instead of processing them in its factory. Were these logs legally obtained or not? So read the questions supposed to be answered by the investigation. The HAT must demonstrate that Tiko’s Rhodes Oil Plants have been illegally acquired. Small sized objects made of  Rhodes Oil Plants are usually noticed on the market. Will the HAT succeed in indicting Marc Ravalomanana thanks to this seizure? Will it successfully divert the general attention from the log in its still unknown figures’ eyes to the twig in its adversary’s one?