Monthly Archives: December 2016

14, December 2016

Gambia: Regional leaders have failed to convince President Jammeh to allow power transition ⁰

West African regional leaders have failed to convince Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh, who has lost and rejected the results of a recent presidential election, to allow power transition. Political upheaval erupted in Gambia after the presidential election on December 1, when opposition leader Adama Barrow was declared the winner. Incumbent Jammeh, who has ruled Gambia for 22 years and was seeking re-election, first conceded defeat but then backtracked, calling for a re-vote.

Gambian military forces, professing loyalty to the president, seized the headquarters of the national elections commission on Tuesday and blocked staffers from entering the office. Leaders from a regional bloc known as the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, traveled to Gambia in a failed attempt to strike a deal with the president to make him leave power. “It is not time for a deal. It is not something that can happen in one day. It is something that we have to work on,” said Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who led the ECOWAS delegation.

The regional leaders will meet again on Saturday, in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, to further seek a solution to the crisis. ECOWAS president Marcel Alain de Souza warned on Tuesday that military intervention could be considered if the Gambian president avoided to step down. Head of the president’s party, the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction, has filed a petition with Gambia’s Supreme Court demanding a fresh vote with a re-validated voter registry.

The document, which was filed against the election commission and Gambia’s attorney general on Tuesday, said the recent election should be invalidated because, it said, the vote was not conducted fairly. “The petition prays that it be determined that the said Adama Barrow was not duly elected or returned as president and that the said election was void,” read the petition.

But it was not clear what the filing of the petition with the Supreme Court would entail, as some of the institution’s judges have been dismissed by Jammeh himself in a previous row. “The only recourse when you have any problems with the results of the elections… one has to appeal to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court has been dormant since May 2015,” said the election commission’s chairman, Alieu Momar Njie, referring to the time when Jammeh dismissed the judges.

Barrow has denounced Jammeh’s rejection of the vote results and said the president lacks the constitutional authority to call for a new vote or to invalidate the election. The United States, the United Nations Security Council, and international organizations have also called for a peaceful transition of power.

Presstv

14, December 2016

US: Autistic boy jailed over attempt to assassinate Donald Trump ⁰

An autistic boy from Britain has been given a 12-month jail term over an attempt to assassinate GOP nominee Donald Trump in one of his rallies at a Las Vegas casino in June in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. The 20-year-old Briton, identified as Michael Steven Sandford, tried to grab a police officer’s gun before he was stopped as the future president was addressing his fans. He later told officers that he meant to kill the now president-elect and pleaded guilty in September.

Judge James Mahan told him: “You have a medical problem. You should not be ashamed or embarrassed about it. You need medication….You’re not a hardened criminal. You’re not evil or a sociopath like a lot of people we have. I don’t think you wanted to kill anybody. This was just some crazy stunt that your mind told you to do.” The young man also voiced regret, saying, “I know saying sorry is not enough. I really do feel awful about what I did. I wish there was some way to make things better. I have cost taxpayers so much money. I feel terrible… I’m really sorry to you and the court for taking up so much time.” Sandford’s family has been trying to make the legal arrangements necessary to bring him back to the UK, where he can receive proper psychiatric help, The Guardian reported. They have also launched a crowdfunding campaign in an effort to raise money of the legal costs. According to his mother, Lynne Sandford, “Michael’s actions were completely out of character. He is an extremely vulnerable young man and we believe that he needs to return to the UK in order to serve his sentence.”

“During my visit to Las Vegas, I learned that Michael had been on suicide watch several times following numerous mental breakdowns,” his mother said. “‘Suicide watch’ in the US involves being kept in isolation 24/7 for up to a week at a time. Other prisoners are allowed books, but these are taken away from Michael while he is in isolation. Michael isn’t even allowed toilet paper while he is in isolation.”

Sandford, who also suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder, severe depression, seizures, cardiac issues and Crohn’s disease, had been in the US for 18 months before the incident happened. He drove from California with a plan to kill Trump in Las Vegas, where he even went to a gun range to learn how to fire a gun. According to his British lawyer, Saimo Chahal, he was delusional at the time. Trump finally managed to gain electoral victory on November 8 and become the country’s future president.

Presstv

14, December 2016

Understanding our Anglophone freedom fighters ¹

POWERCAM: It was a hydro electricity dam located in Yoke Muyuka that was supplying electricity to the entire British Southern Cameroons. This dam was closed down deliberately by the Francophone led government after reunification.

CAMEROON BANK: This was our Anglophone bank created by the government in Buea and was the biggest bank in the two Cameroons and operated under the Barclays Bank UK standards in West Africa. It was completely destroyed by both Ahidjo and Biya’s men in La Eepublique du Cameroun.

National Produce MARKETING BOARD: It was the cocoa and coffee authority of British Southern Cameroons headquartered in Victoria (Not Limbe as the Biya comedian Inoni Ephraim wants us to call it}. It provided Anglophone farmers with details of all what was happening in the world market. It invested in reserves in the Cameroon Bank and kept the our young men off the streets by running football clubs. This was completely shattered by La Republique.

Cooperative Societies: This was a Dutch culture implanted in Anglophone Cameroon. Farmers had to work in cooperative groups. Those who were sailing from a Port in Douala via Malabo in Equatorial Guinea to France to be assimilated came and destroyed it.

Mobile Wing Police: It was a well trained British police force that we Anglophones inherited and was noted for its discipline. Ahidjo replaced them with a ruthless force known as the French Gendarmerie

What can we say about the following?

EMPIRE DAY

CAMDEV

CONFIDENCE HOTEL ORCHESTRA

BALI MODERN JAZZ

LIDO ORCHESTRA

CHRYSTAL GARDEN ORCHESTRA

MOUNTAIN HOTEL ORCHESTRA

WEST CAMEROON HOTELS LTD

CAT (CAMEROON AIR TRANSPORT): The main hub was Tiko international airport. It was transporting CDC produce and also running domestic flights. Was an airline representing British Southern Cameroon values and was a fast growing airline in West Africa at that time. It was closed down by a Francophone dominated government in Yaoundé.

PWD: The Public Works Department was an Anglophone identity of heavy duty machines placed at the doors of councils for road maintenance and repairs. Their pride was also seen in the football clubs; PWD Kumba and PWD Bamenda and it was the fastest road construction and maintenance body growing in West Africa. It was maliciously stifled by vicious elements of La Republique du Cameroun.

MEDINO: This was a body of trained roving Agric experts who moved around helping farmers by educating them on farming methods. The seat of MEDINO’s government was in Bamenda. It was ruined by La Republique du Cameroun.

Ekona Research Centre was created by the Americans and was the best research centre in West Africa. It was systematically Francophonised and now is a sham.

Tiko international airport was indeed the fastest growing international airport in West Africa that hosted the late Dr Nkwame Nkrumah of Ghana during his maiden official visit to British Southern Cameroons. It was shut down by people we call brothers from La Republique du Cameroun.

Tiko Wharf: It Linked maritime transport between West Cameroon via Nigeria to the entire West Africa and was growing to the status of a seaport!! This was Killed by La Republique du Cameroun.

FONADE was created through a British Southern Cameroons initiative to subsidies farmers both financially and materially. It was transferred to Yaoundé by Ahmadou Ahidjo and the name changed to Credit Agricole and destroyed by Francophones.

Ombe Trade centre: Equipped with heavy industrial machines and training Southern Cameroonians to master the maintenance culture was laid to rest by La Republique du Cameroun.

George Pompidou (French President) including Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya agreed that, all these Anglophone companies should be eliminated so that, we can be the slaves to La Republique du Cameroun.

13, December 2016

UN warns that world’s poorest countries are falling further behind ⁰

A UN report has warned that the planet’s poorest countries are falling further behind the rest of the world. The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in its annual report on the world’s poorest nations on Tuesday that the Least Developed Countries (LDC) had failed to catch up without more aid and favorable trade deals.

The agency has warned that these 48 countries were caught in “vicious circles.” It has also voiced concern over the ability of the poorest nations to lift themselves up on their own. “Countries can only break out of such vicious circles with international support in finance, trade and technology.”

The UNCTAD report also said nearly half of the poor live in the 48 most impoverished countries. The rate has more than doubled since 1990. Extreme poverty is currently defined as living on less than $1.90 per day. Botswana, Cape Verde, the Maldives and Samoa are the only four countries that have graduated from the LDC list since the United Nations created it 45 years ago.

The current list of the LDC countries includes 34 African nations, nine in Asia, four in the Pacific, and Haiti. Only Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Vanuatu, the report said, are on track to be excluded from the LDC in the coming years. Angola and Equatorial Guinea have seen a rise in the gross national income (GNI), but the benefits of energy revenues have not been spread among the population.

Mukhisa Kituyi, the UNCTAD chief, has said that graduation from the LDC is not, in itself, a mark of progress. “How a country graduates is just as important as when it graduates.”

Presstv

13, December 2016

Gambian military forces have taken over the office of the Independent Electoral Commission ⁰

Gambian military forces have taken over the office of the Independent Electoral Commission amid a dispute over the result of a recent presidential election. Alieu Momarr Njai, the chairman of the commission, said on Tuesday that security forces had entered the commission’s building. “The military came to my office and said I am not to touch anything and told me to leave,” Njai said, adding, “I am worried for my safety.”

The raid comes amid increasing disagreement about the result of the recent presidential election. President Yahya Jammeh, who reportedly gained 208,487 votes or about 40 percent, had initially conceded defeat against Adama Barrow, who obtained 222,708 votes or over 43.3 percent. However, Jammeh later changed his mind after the commission revised some results.

Njai rejected Jammeh’s worry about the validity of the revised outcome. He said Jammeh would go nowhere by challenging the outcome. “The election results were correct, nothing will change that,” Njai said, adding, “If it goes to court, we can prove every vote cast. The results are there for everyone to see.”

Heads of state from several countries in the West African region began arriving in the Gambia on Tuesday in a bid to persuade Jammeh to relinquish power. Marcel de Souza, the president of the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), who leads the initiative to make Jammeh leave office, said ECOWAS may even be forced to send troops to the Gambia.

“We have done it in the past,” he said, adding, “We currently have troops in Guinea-Bissau with the Ecomib mission. We have had troops in Mali. And therefore it is a possible solution.”

Presstv

13, December 2016

UK: Nigerian-born doctor with CCAS Kumba links jailed for 5 years ¹

He is known as a Cameroonian and also as a Nigerian-born doctor in the UK. However, Wilson Odume is simply a former student of the Cameroon College of Arts and Science, CCAS Kumba. He has been jailed for 5 years with another medical issue still pending.

Medical tribunal told Dr Odume ‘demonstrated considerable tenacity’ in trying to provide evidence he was fit to practice. Wilson Odume backed his application to be allowed to practise in the UK by saying he often watches medical dramas on telly. ‘I never miss medical programmes on BBC and other stations, for example Casualty, Scrubs and others’

“These also help keep me in-line with things happening in the medical world.” Dr Odume trained after coming to Britain in 2001. He has had six clinical attachments in Leicester. But he was refused registration by the General Medical Council in 2013 for concealing ten minor driving offences.

An appeal hearing in Manchester yesterday was told he had three failures before passing tests for foreign doctors, and that eventual pass had now expired. The panel said mention of the TV shows was “worrying” and “displays a very concerning lack of insight”. He admitted: “To have even mentioned this was a nonsense, and frankly rather light-hearted. It did not reflect my real thinking. It was a silly thing to put.”

He also claimed to have attempted to “understand UK culture” further and had taken a course in ethics. The tribunal was told Dr Odume had “demonstrated considerable tenacity” in trying to provide evidence he was fit to practise the “profession he loves”. Judgment was reserved with a decision due in four weeks.

Dr Odume again orchestrated a sham marriage scam

Wilson Odume (45), a Cameroonian national, and Martin Okoko (31), a Nigerian national, organised bogus weddings in an attempt to by-pass immigrations rules. The marriages between Hungarians, Nigerians and Cameroonians took place in Gretna and Leicester between 2007 and 2012.

Odume also took part in a fake marriage of his own in order to gain residency in the UK. Sarah Knight, prosecuting, told Leicester Crown Court the pair were caught following an inquiry by Immigration Enforcement Criminal Investigations officers, which began when intelligence was received that Okoko was arranging sham marriages from a shop he ran in Woodgate, Leicester.

There were also separate reports from registrars in Gretna of suspicious marriages involving individuals from the Leicester area. At the end of a six week trial, a jury found Okoko, of Aikman Avenue, New Parks, Leicester, guilty of two offences of assisting unlawful immigration and Odume, of Loughborough Road, Leicester, of three counts. Odume was jailed for five years, and Okoko for four years.

Culled from the SUN and Leicester Mercury

13, December 2016

Biya tells lawyers and teachers “Take the Federation off the table” ⁰

According to unimpeachable sources, a high level delegation of Lawyers and Teachers, headed by Barrister Harmony Bobga convened in Ndawara, Boyo Division, at the legendary home of business mogul and Biya protege, Alhadji Baba.

Our concurring sources said the meeting was at the behest of President Biya who reached out to his friend Alhadji Baba. According to my sources, Alhadji Baba said that President Biya was not getting the truth from the men around him and had reached out to him so he could get to the bottom of the problems. But first, the President indicated that talk of federation had to be “off the table”.

Accompanied by France 24 because some participants “were in fear of not coming out of that fortress” alive, the lawyers and teachers maintained their demands, viz:

1) Common Law Bar;

2) Common Law Chamber at the Supreme Court;

3) Common Law School to train lawyers as well as Common Law Judges

4) Separate Education Council to take care of Southern Cameroons education from kindergarten through University;

5) Return control of entry into professional schools back to the Universities and away from the corrupt Ministry of Higher Education;

6) Return to two State Federation.

The 12 hour long session started Sunday afternoon and ended in wee hours of Monday at 2:00am, the time at which lawyers finished drafting the document that was immediately dispatched to the Presidency for translation and then forwarded to the President. The Lawyers, Teachers and Civil Society present hope to hear from the President soon.

But they made it clear, sources say, that if there is no reasonable action by the Head of State, things will move into phase three. In the meantime, talk was rife about an impending cabinet change in the wake of the monumental failure by PM Yang and the poor handling of the situation by Fame Ndongo of Education, as well as his colleagues at the Ministry of Justice and Paul Atanga.

By Innocent Chia

13, December 2016

Trump tells Mitt Romney “You are not getting post of Secretary of State” ⁰

US President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly called Mitt Romney, one of his fiercest critics and the 2012 Republican nominee, to tell him that he is not getting the post of secretary of state. After Bloomberg and some other sources revealed this information on Monday night, the former Massachusetts governor also confirmed that he was not being considered for the job by Trump.

“It was an honor to have been considered for Secretary of State of our great country,” Romney wrote on his Facebook page. “My discussions with President-elect Trump have been both enjoyable and enlightening. I have very high hopes that the new administration will lead the nation to greater strength, prosperity and peace,” he stated.

Trump announced on Monday night on his Twitter handle that he will pick a person to lead the State Department on Tuesday morning. Romney — a figure with orthodox Republican views — was on the shortlist for the post of top US diplomat until the end, Bloomberg reported. But now ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson is expected to be named by the president-elect as his secretary of state, according to reports.

Romney had been a virulent critic of Trump throughout his Republican primary campaign, imploring voters to reject his candidacy. In March, he said the victory of Trump in the 2016 presidential election “will have profound consequences for the Republican Party and, more importantly, for the country.”

“If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished,” he warned. “Here’s what I know: Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud,” claimed Romney. The former Massachusetts governor said in June if Trump would be elected president, he could legitimize racism and bigotry and change the moral fabric of American society.

In response, Trump, who endorsed Romney in 2012, denounced him as an “ungrateful” person, adding that Romney begged for his endorsement and “would’ve dropped to his knees” for it. “I believe I won for him, or helped him win, fives states that he was going to lose in the primaries. … He was ungrateful,” Trump said.

Trump had propelled himself as the president-elect by framing himself as an anti-establishment outsider. However, his campaign had been defined by controversy from the beginning, including disparaging remarks about women, Mexican immigrants and Muslims.

Presstv

13, December 2016

New York: Former Portuguese Prime Minister sworn in as UN chief ⁰

Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres has been sworn in as the United Nations’ ninth secretary general. Guterres, the former UN refugee chief, was sworn in on Monday in New York in front of Peter Thomson, the president of the UN General Assembly, and will replace outgoing Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on January 1, 2017.

“Fear is driving the decisions of many people around the world, and we must understand their anxieties and meet their needs without losing sights of our universal values,” said Guterres. He added that the time has come for citizens and leaders to reconstruct their relations, for leaders to start listening to their people, and for the UN to own up to its shortcomings and fix them. “The organization is the cornerstone of multilateralism, and has contributed to decades of relative peace. But the challenges are now surpassing our ability to respond; the UN must be ready to change,” he added.

He stressed that the only way to re-establish confidence in human and international relations is to tell the truth. “I believe it is with truth that I need to engage with all governments in the world,” he added. Guterres, 67, led the country from 1995 to 2002. He was also the chief of the UN refugee agency for 10 years until 2015. He will be the first former head of government to lead the United Nations.

He was sworn in after the 193 General Assembly members paid tribute to Ban which ended with a standing ovation for the outgoing top UN official. “Even as I prepare to leave my heart will stay as it has since I was a child right here with the United Nations. And that heart is greatly comforted knowing that I am passing the baton to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, a man of integrity and principle. I have no doubt that he with his passion and compassion will successfully navigate many complex challenges and steer the organization to a new and higher height,” said Ban.

Presstv

12, December 2016

Kumbo: Troops open fire on civilians ⁰

Cameroon Concord News has learnt that the army has opened fired into a crowd of peaceful protesters in Kumbo, in Bui Division. The crowd refused to disperse after an anti-La Republique demonstration was held.

The demonstrators took to the streets in several important places including on college campuses across Kumbo condemning the killing of their son by troops loyal to the Yaounde regime in Bameda.

A huge crowd of protesters assembled downtown early this morning chanting pro secessionist slogans. Troops have blocked the entrances and exit from Kumbo. The protest has been mostly peaceful.

By Fru James in Kumbo