Jean-Boniface Assélé

Jean-Boniface Assélé (born 9 February 1939) is a Gabonese politician and the President of the Circle of Liberal Reformers (CLR). He served in the government of Gabon from 1975 to 1990 and again from 2004 to 2009. He was also Commander-in-Chief of the National Police Forces from 1970 to 1989 and held the rank of General. Since September 2009, Assélé has been the Fourth Vice-President of the Senate of Gabon.

Assélé was born in Akiéni. From 1970 to 1989, he was Commander-in-Chief of the National Police Forces; also during that period, he served as High Commissioner at the Presidency from 1974 to 1975 and was appointed as Secretary of State for Information in 1975. He was then appointed as Minister of National Education later in 1975, and he was retained in the government as Minister of National Education, Youth, Sports and Leisure on 13 July 1977. In 1980 he was moved to the position of Minister of Public Works. At the Third Extraordinary Congress of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) in early March 1983, Assélé was elected to the PDG Central Committee.

For years, Assélé was a brother-in-law of President Omar Bongo as the brother of Bongo's wife Joséphine Kama. He is said to have used his position as head of police to keep watch on his sister and report her "indiscretions" to Bongo. Bongo and Joséphine divorced in 1988. Although Assélé was considered a "long-time and trusted ally" of Bongo,Léon Ossiali was appointed to replace him as Commander-in-Chief of the National Police Forces on 12 January 1989. His removal from that key position was interpreted by some observers as a consequence of Bongo's divorce; another explanation attributed it to a leaflet campaign by the exiled opposition group MORENA, which had smuggled the leaflets into Gabon. Despite being removed from his police command, Assélé remained in his post as Minister of Public Works at that time. After ten years as Minister of Public Works, he was instead appointed as Minister of Water and Forests in February 1990, but he only held that position until April 1990, when he was dismissed from the government.

Assélé was elected to the National Assembly in the 1990 parliamentary election. Together with other members of the PDG, Assélé split from the ruling party in late 1992 and formed the Circle of Liberal Reformers; as a result, he and two others were expelled from the PDG in December 1992. He and the CLR nevertheless allied with the PDG and supported Bongo's candidacy in the December 1993 presidential election. Assélé remained in the National Assembly until the end of the parliamentary term in 1996, and he was re-elected to the National Assembly in the December 1996 parliamentary election, winning the second seat from the Third Arrondissement of Libreville.

...
Wikipedia