Abubakar Sumahoro, newly elected MP of the Italian Left who had embodied the struggles of migrants working in the fields of the Italian regions, left his party's parliamentary group yesterday as he faces a growing scandal.
His mother-in-law is accused of mismanaging the funds of cooperatives active in supporting and hosting migrants.
The cooperatives also employed the partner of the 42-year-old Italian MP of Ivory Coast origin. According to press reports, she allegedly secured earnings of tens of thousands of euros.
At the same time, according to press reports, the cooperatives allegedly owed large sums of money in accrued wages to their workers.
Andrea Pupila, a Catholic priest in the San Severo region, also denounced that the current MP had in the past allegedly helped to collect money to buy gifts for migrant children, who "did not turn out to have children".
Abubakar Sumahoro left the Italian Left and Greens group in the Italian Parliament because of the scandal, in principle "temporarily", while retaining his status as an MP.
In his statements last night on the Italian private channel La 7's "Piazza Pulita" programme, he said that he "blames himself for a certain amount of frivolity", while insisting that he had committed no crime.
"The cooperatives delayed the payment of wages because state aid was late," he said, while "I did not know that in some cases the conditions inside the structures were not appropriate."
Asked how he commented on the fact that his partner was photographed in clothes and accessories worth thousands of euros, the MP simply said that "it was a matter of personal choice", that "fashion is a choice".
Soumahoro is not facing a judicial investigation at this stage, but the case has caused a stir and continues to gather momentum, as the MP has in the recent past been a symbol of the demands of migrants working, often in squalid conditions, in the fields of southern Italy.
Source: APM
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