Monthly Archives: July 2019

Real Madrid: Zidane confident as Benzema hat-trick helps lift gloom

31, July 2019

Real Madrid: Zidane confident as Benzema hat-trick helps lift gloom 0

French striker Karim Benzema scored a hat-trick as Real Madrid defeated Fenerbahce 5-3 in a pre-season friendly on Wednesday which temporarily lifted the summer gloom which has engulfed the Spanish giants and coach Zinedine Zidane.

However, problems remain for Real as they have now conceded 16 goals in just five friendly matches.

They faced their Turkish opponents having been defeated by Tottenham 1-0 on Tuesday in the first match of a four-team event which also features German champions Bayern Munich.

“We are going to find the solutions, we are going to work. I stand by my players and I know that we are going to make progress and that we will have a very good season,” said Zidane whose team had been left bruised by a humiliating 7-3 defeat by city rivals Atletico in a friendly in the United States last week.

“Nobody likes conceding three goals but we have scored five. For us, this is a positive victory.”

Zidane’s preparations for the new season have also been overshadowed by the saga of Gareth Bale’s future at the club.

The Welsh star was left out of the Spanish side’s squad for the two matches in Munich after his planned transfer to Chinese side Jiangsu Suning, who had offered the Welshman a three-year-deal worth £1 million ($1.1 million) a week, broke down.

Benzema said the humilation at the hands of Atletico was a thing of the past and that the crucial date will be the weekend of August 17 when the new La Liga season starts.

“The criticisms after the match against Atletico were normal. It was only a friendly but you cannot concede seven goals,” said the French striker.

“However, it’s no longer on my mind.”

AFP

Southern Cameroons War: Equinox TV, CRTV reaction have become biased, petty and dishonest

31, July 2019

Southern Cameroons War: Equinox TV, CRTV reaction have become biased, petty and dishonest 0

After receiving huge sums of money from the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé, the major media houses are presently spending on average approximately six minutes every single day pushing the narrative of “Back To School” in Southern Cameroons. The media houses involved have the support of so-called Ambazonian moderates headed by Cardinal Tumi and Barrister Agbor Balla.

French Cameroun political elites are certainly not unbiased figures. They have a history of spreading right-wing memes mocking Southern Cameroonians. They have made a plethora of controversial statements against the people of Southern Cameroons, including once comparing Southern Cameroons to two cubes of sugar. However, with the dust now settled Ambazonians can see clearly the sorry state of the Francophone dominated mainstream media, and the massive bias that journalists exude against the sufferings of the people of Southern Cameroons.

An investigation carried out by Cameroon Intelligence Report found out that approximately 95 percent of all successful journalists in Cameroon have strong ties with the Biya regime and they often turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed by the Cameroon government army soldiers on innocent Southern Cameroons civilians.

Cameroon Intelligence Report also found that over 90 percent of the total media coverage of the Southern Cameroons war has been extremely hostile. There is not another group of people in African history who have faced such uneven coverage from the media. It is therefore entirely fair for Southern Cameroonians to stop watching Equinox and CRTV and for the Southern Cameroons diaspora to increase funding for the SCBC TV station.

Media bias against Southern Cameroonians does not end at the battle for Ambazonia. This pattern has been extremely pronounced against all Southern Cameroons political leaders including Simon Achidi Achu, Peter Mafany Musonge, Philemon Yang and now Dion Ngute. When it was even rumored that the French were considering replacing Biya with Mafany Musonge, Etoudi sponsored an article in many independent French Cameroun newspapers revealing that Musonge had travelled to Switzerland and opened a bank account.

The so-called independent television stations continue to fawn over and defend both the Biya regime and the French Cameroun military and Equinox and CRTV have aired endless reports fantasizing about the Cameroon army success in the war in Southern Cameroons.  

By some strange happenstance, La Republique du Cameroun under the 86 year old Biya prides itself in protecting the freedom of the press.  Maybe, in order to ensure that anti Biya CPDM officials such Chief Inoni Ephraim, Mebo Ngo, Marafa Hamidou Yaya and Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara are held fully accountable to guarantee Biya’s continued stay in power and  maintain the vibrancy of French Cameroun’s advance democracy.

 Lying and misleading their audience has become the order of the day with Equinox and CRTV and it has greatly damage the reputations of journalists and cheapened political rhetoric and has actually inspired political extremism in Southern Cameroons. Both French and Southern Cameroonians do not have alternative sources to discern reality from fiction. It is a real danger that actually feeds the seeds of Biya’s authoritarianism because one of the most common tactics dictators like Biya uses to maintain power is to discredit and destroy the free press.

Quite frankly, the biggest enemy of the French Cameroun dominated media isn’t Mr Paul Biya — it’s themselves. Journalists serving with Equinox and CRTV are the only people capable of rewriting their own reputation. It is ultimately entirely in their hands to change their behavior — otherwise, their credibility in the eyes of Southern Cameroonians will be permanently tarred.

It has often been said that the media is the Fourth Estate. It is important for journalists to remember the heavy responsibility that they carry with them. Media houses published false information that led to the genocide in Rwanda and the same situation is slowly but surely playing out in Southern Cameroons.  To engage in yellow journalism, falsely blaming Ambazonia Self Defense Forces for crimes committed by Cameroon government army soldiers and Minister Paul Atanga Nji gangs will continue to cost thousands of lives on both sides of the Ambazonia conflict.

Let the media men and women in Equinox and CRTV be aware that words have power. Those who speak and write have great responsibility; journalists must also abide by a code of ethics, the most important quality of which is honesty. Until that changes, there isn’t a bright future for the men and women in La Republique du Cameroun media.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Can Francophones deny these accusations levied against them that finally led to this war situation?

31, July 2019

Can Francophones deny these accusations levied against them that finally led to this war situation? 0

25 YEARS AGO: WHY FONCHA , MUNA AND 5 OTHER SOUTHERN

CAMEROONIANS WITHDREW FROM THE

CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE ON CONSTITUTIONAL

REFORMS.

On the 4th of Dec 1994, Paul Biya signed a decree creating the Consultative Committee on Constitutional  Reforms. The committee was headed by Achidi Achu to window dress it as being Controlled by an Anglophone. Of the 58 members of the committee, only 14 were Southern Cameroonians. 7 out of the 14 later withdrew from the deliberation process in committee. Among them is Pa Foncha and Muna. It should be borne in mind that the 1996 constitution of la Republic was born out of this charade.

The unbalanced representation and failure to address the Southern Cameroons question compelled

FONCHA , MUNA and Five others to withdrew. An Excerpt of what Foncha wrote in his withdrawal

letter ..

“Mr. Ahidjo publicly stated to the people of southern Cameroons during successive visits to that territory in 1960 and 1961 that unification would not mean annexation, that its modalities would be negotiated between representatives of Southern Cameroons and those of La Republique du Cameroun and that to render unification viable and useful; a flexible and federal form of the state which he qualified as unique and diverse, was envisaged…

I can state here and now that the People of southern Cameroons would never have voted in favour of

Unification if it had not been for the assurances given that the resulting union would take the form of

a federation…

The hounourable S. T. Muna and I have often been accused of having allowed this situation [i.e.

‘annexation of Southern Cameroons’] to come about. At this point in time I do not feel the necessity–nor, I suppose, does the Honourable S. T. Muna– to defend myself against these accusations, unjust though they are. What is important is that the Good Lord who, in his infinite wisdom determines the

affairs of each man and of each people, has preserved me long enough to have the opportunity of pleading before the Cameroon Nation for the correction of the wrongs which have been done, over the past three decades and more, against an unsuspecting and trusting people that I, acting in good faith and as a Cameroonian patriot, led into

What I was assured would be a union of equal partners, but which has since turned out to be an arrangement for the annexation, subjugation and domination of one of the partners by the other…

I responded to the invitation of the President of the Republic to attend this Committee in the confident expectation that the deliberations of the Committee would offer us the opportunity to correct the wrongs which I have referred above.

For nearly two years, the people of Southern Cameroons whom I led into the union with La Republique du Cameroun have, through the All Anglophone Conference- AAC (now the Southern Cameroons People’s Conference-SCPC) carefully studied, responsibly formulated, and respectfully submitted to government, substantial constitutional proposals.

These proposals are aimed at ensuring a better governance of the entire united Cameroon, while also putting an end to the annexation, subjugation and domination of one of our two territories by the other, thus restoring the spirit and intent of the union of 1961…

In any event, in the proposals that have been submitted before us, I do not see any provisions at all which go in the direction of making even a token attempt to respond to the grievances of the Southern

Cameroonian People…

Mr. Chairman,

In the final analysis, the people of Southern Cameroons never participated in the elaboration and adoption of the supposed federal constitution of 1961 which was adopted by the National Assembly of La Republique du Cameroun on September 1, 1961, that is to say, one month before the birth of the federal Republic of Cameroon. These same people never participated in drawing up the unitary constitution of 1972 which was imposed upon them in a nationwide referendum.

Bearing this in mind, I had hoped that the present constitutional reform process would provide the people of Southern Cameroons the opportunity, for the first time since independence of our respective territories and the reunification of our fatherland, to contribute effectively to the elaboration and adoption of a truly Cameroonian constitution which responds to their aspirations as well…

I feel distressed that the constitutional proposals put before this committee do not offer the opportunity for us, as a nation, to address our minds to, and resolve, the genuine and legitimate grievances of the Southern Cameroonian people in particular and the Cameroonian people in general. I feel all the more distressed that this should be happening under the chairmanship of a son of Southern Cameroons whom, I believe, is as sensitive as any one of us to the injustices which his People and their Territory have suffered in more than three decades. Today, he has been designated to preside over the completion of the process of annexation of that People and that Territory.

For this, He shall tomorrow stand accused by his People, as I stand accused today. However, whereas in 1961 the bitter experiences of Southern Cameroons lay in the future that we could not predict, in 1994 we have behind us thirty-three years worth of these experiences, with the prospect of more to come unless something is done now. In the light of these experiences, we have no reason in

1994 to repeat the mistakes of 1961″

Dr. John Ngu

UK: Prime Minister Boris Johnson appoints 39 Year-Old Nigerian Olukemi Olufunto as Minister

31, July 2019

UK: Prime Minister Boris Johnson appoints 39 Year-Old Nigerian Olukemi Olufunto as Minister 0

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has appointed Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch, aged 39, as Children and Families Minister, as part of his government reshuffle. Badenoch is a British Conservative politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for Saffron Walden.

She was born in Wimbledon, London to Nigerian parents. Her childhood was spent in Lagos and the United States. She moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 16. She has been the MP for Saffron Walden since 2017 after replacing Nadhim Zawahi.

She once told MPs in Parliament about her own experiences of poverty and how she used to do her homework by candlelight.

A software and IT engineer, Badenoch studied systems engineering at Sussex University and also has a law degree. She has worked in the banking sector for Coutts and RBS and is a mother of two.

Tweeting about her appointment, Badenoch @KemiBadenoch posted on 29 July: “Thank you for all good wishes and kind messages of support received. I also look forward to working not just with @Conservatives colleagues but cross-party and grateful for the warm welcome from @TracyBrabin and @Steve ReedMP who no doubt will be keeping me on my toes!”

The minister’s responsibilities include early years policy, including inspection and regulation. Her portfolio includes delivery of 30 hours free childcare offer, special educational needs including high needs funding, safeguarding in schools and disadvantaged pupils – including pupil premium and pupil premium plus.

In her 2017 maiden speech as MP, the daughter of a GP and a physiology professor, described the vote for Brexit as “the greatest ever vote of confidence in the project of the United Kingdom”.

Source: ViewpointNigeria

Sudan’s junta orders schools closed as tensions mount

31, July 2019

Sudan’s junta orders schools closed as tensions mount 0

Officials in Sudan have ordered the shutdown of schools across the country amid an escalation of tensions over the killing of five students.

Snipers allegedly shot dead the five high school students while they were taking part in a protest rally against fuel and bread shortages in al-Obeid City on Monday.

Late on Tuesday, authorities ordered all schools nationwide to suspend classes.

“Orders have been given to governors of all states to shut kindergartens, primary, and high schools from tomorrow (Wednesday) until further notice,” the official SUNA news agency said, following a directive issued by the ruling military council.

On the streets in the capital, Khartoum, crowds of students rallied, waving flags and chanting, “The people want to fight for the rights of martyrs.”

“We keep silent all the time and they kill us,” said Enas Saifeddine, a 16-year-old high school student. “The five students of al-Obeid were killed because they were asking for something basic like food, water, and electricity.”

The killings, which have caused outrage across the country and beyond, are attributed to the tribal paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

PressTV-Snipers kill 5 protesters during rally in central Sudan

The United Nations (UN) has called for an investigation into the killings. The UN’s children agency, UNICEF, has urged Sudanese officials “to investigate and hold all perpetrators of violence against children accountable.”

Meanwhile, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the ruling military council, has condemned the killings.

“What happened in al-Obeid is sad. Killing peaceful civilians is an unacceptable crime that needs immediate accountability,” he told journalists, quoted by state television.

The military council has been in power since April, when generals ousted long-time president Omar al-Bashir in the midst of protests against him.

But the Sudanese did not stop protesting. They have since been expressing their disapproval of military rule in demonstrations across the country. Bashir himself had risen to power in a coup.

Source: Presstv

Understanding the Kondengui Prison riot

31, July 2019

Understanding the Kondengui Prison riot 0

Crushed inside disease-ridden cells, with no beds, little food and even less hope, inmates in Cameroon’s prisons were already tense before an influx of political detainees and Anglophone separatists stirred up an explosive mix.

At an overcrowded central prison in the capital Yaounde this week, hundreds of prisoners revolted against their poor conditions in an upsurge of violence broadcast on Facebook.

On Monday, videos spread across social media of prisoners ransacking and burning the Kondengui jail library and a sewing workshop before security forces crushed the mutiny.

Filming on their phones, inmates posted parts of their protest, chanting: “We want more to eat than porridge,” and “We want to go to trial.”

A day later, security services had reestablished control.

But the riot highlighted the crisis in the central African nation’s prisons, exacerbated by a crackdown on opposition parties, Boko Haram militants, and a separatist uprising that has rocked English-speaking regions since 2016.

“Prison overcrowding is exacerbated by the socio-political crisis that began in 2016 in the Anglophone areas and the post-election crisis,” said Maximilienne Ngo Mbe, director of the local REDHAC rights group.

“The situation in Cameroonian prisons has become catastrophic… How is it that people languish in prison for two or three years without being tried.”

The Cameroon prison population has increased steadily from 23,500 in 2013 to almost 31,000 in December 2017, according to the last report published in 2018 by the National Commission for Human Rights and Freedoms of Cameroon.

Kondengui prison, the scene of the riot, was built to accommodate 1,500 inmates but is estimated to house more than double.

Some prison occupancy rates are three times over normal capacity, according to official data.

Rights groups say prisons also suffer from a prevalence of tuberculosis, HIV, AIDS, cholera and scabies.

– Growing numbers –

Since 2017, fighting between government troops and English-speaking separatists demanding independence in two western regions has killed hundreds and forced nearly 500,000 people from their homes.

The government has rejected the demands for autonomy and cracked down on English-speaking communities which chafe at what they see as discrimination from the French-speaking majority.

Some prisons have been filled with English-speaking activists accused of militancy by the authorities, but who are yet to face trial.

In Buea, the capital of an English-speaking region, tensions erupted at a prison on Tuesday housing many separatist inmates — a day after the revolt in Yaounde.

Gunshots were heard around the prison and flame and smoke were seen rising from its roof, witnesses said. Prisons have increasingly become political incubators, according to analysts, also because the opposition MRC party has faced a crackdown.

Party chief Maurice Kamto has been held in jail in Yaounde since January after claiming the 2018 presidential election results were rigged.

The official victor — President Paul Biya, now in power for 36 years — has long sought to control the political space in the country.

Last month hundreds of opposition supporters were also arrested.

Many have been released but after the Kondengui prison riot, lawyers for MRC members still detained said several had been taken to a security force detention facility.

Human Rights Watch has warned that over the past year security forces at such facilities have “used torture without fear of repercussion.”

– Packed into cells –

Prison overcrowding is also blamed on the fight against Nigeria-based Boko Haram jihadists, which have launched numerous attacks in the country.

For years, prisons in Cameroon’s big cities have struggled, says Marie Morelle, a geographer at the University Paris 1, and specialist in the country’s prisons.

In the north of the country, the jailing of Boko Haram fighters alongside the crackdown on suspected separatist militants has accentuated overcrowding in the northern Maroua prison, she said.

The arrival of political prisoners in recent years has encouraged the expression of grievances, Morelle added.  Mutinies in Cameroon prisons are not uncommon. In 2015, a revolt broke out in the prison of Garaoua in the north, following the death of an inmate.

He died of suffocation after being locked in a disciplinary cell measuring 4 metres squared and packed with 22 people.

In 2016, a riot erupted in the same prison over a lack of drinking water.

A year later in Baffoussam in the west, prisoners protested jail conditions and in Kumbo a jail was partially destroyed by a riot and fire.

Culled from InfoSurhoy

Man who pushed German boy under train was on run from Swiss police

30, July 2019

Man who pushed German boy under train was on run from Swiss police 0

An Eritrean man accused of killing an eight-year-old boy by pushing him under a train in Germany had been on the run from Swiss police after a violent incident last week, authorities said Tuesday.

The married father-of-three, identified by German media only as 40-year-old Habte A., had also undergone psychiatric treatment this year, said police in the Swiss canton of Zurich where he lived.

Last Thursday, he had flown into a rage and threatened a neighbour with a knife and locked her up, and also trapped his wife and their children, aged one, three and four, in their flat before running away.

Spiegel Online reported that the asylum seeker who had lived in Switzerland for 13 years had worked in tram maintenance for the Zurich Transport Authority since early last year.

German federal police chief Dieter Romann said it appeared the suspect had not been listed as wanted in European police databases and had been able to cross borders freely.

German prosecutors laid murder and attempted murder charges against the man over the attack Monday that left eye-witnesses in need of trauma counselling and shocked the nation.

He allegedly also pushed the boy’s mother onto the tracks at Frankfurt’s main station, and tried but failed to do the same to a 78-year-old woman.

“While the mother could roll off after the fall and move herself onto a narrow footpath between two tracks, her child was caught by the arriving train and died, on the spot, of his injuries,” said a statement by Frankfurt prosecutors.

– Psychiatric examination –

The man ran down a platform and across tracks but was followed by passers-by including an off-duty officer, and overpowered by police two blocks from the station.

The suspect did not previously know the victims and showed no signs of alcohol or drug use, prosecutors spokeswoman Nadja Niesen said.

“The crime suggests a psychiatric disorder,” she told a press conference, adding that an examination would ascertain the level of his criminal culpability.

The horrific crime has dominated newspaper front-pages and TV news bulletins, and led politicians to call for heightened security, more camera surveillance and tighter border controls.

Citizens have laid flower wreaths, candles and stuffed toys at the site of the killing and a memorial service was scheduled at the station in the evening.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer cut short his summer holiday to meet the heads of major security agencies in Berlin.

Niesen said the man in custody had not yet spoken about a motive.

If formally charged, tried and then found guilty, he would face a likely term of life in prison, she said.

In a similar case earlier this month, a 34-year-old mother died after being pushed in front of a train, allegedly by a Serbian man.

Germany’s far-right has seized on both killings to once more criticise would it regards as the flawed immigration policies of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government

Source: AFP

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Leader writes to French Cameroun Minister for Justice, Declares Hunger Strike Action

30, July 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Leader writes to French Cameroun Minister for Justice, Declares Hunger Strike Action 0

Through:

The Prison Superintendent,

Prison Principale Kondengui, Yaoundé,

La Republique du Cameroun.

Sir,

DECLARATION OF HUNGER STRIKE BY SISIKU AYUK TABE AND OTHER AMBAZONIANS IN ‘PRISON PRINCIPALE’ KONDENGUI YAOUNDE

This is to bring to your attention our decision to protest by way of a Hunger Strike, beginning at midnight today.

This strike is triggered by the disappearance of our compatriots from the Kondengui Central prison and the Buea Central Prison, following their peaceful protests on the 22nd July 2019 and 23rd July 2019 respectively. This strike will go effective if by the close of business today, 30/07/2019 ourlawyers do not confirm that they have met some of our people, particularly,Mancho Bibixy, Penn Terence, Tsi Conrad, Ngalim Felix, Tita Tebit, Che Luther, Tang George, among others.

Other reasons for the strike include:

  1. The brutal torture to comma of a member our defense team, by elements of the Gendarmerie and threat by security agents on the lives of other members our defense team. It should be noted that earlier on security agents in Bamenda Commercial Ave fired live ammunition it Barr Awah Joseph’s car missing him and another colleague returning from office narrowly!!!
  2. The profiling of Ambazonians (British Southern Cameroonians) in Yaoundé at the behest of the Minister of Territorial Administration – Mr Atanga Nji Paul, is a clear call for the intensification of genocide on Ambazonians,
  3. Theongoing genocide in Ambazonia perpetuated by the military, police and Gendarmerie of La Republique du Cameroun,
  4. The flagrant violations of the rights to fair trial as well as the abusive Court martial of Ambazonians in Cameroun Republic against international conventions and treaties duly ratified by Cameroun.
  5. The overcrowding, malnutrition, cruel and degrading detention conditions in prisons,
  6. The direct threats on the lifes of our families and friends by Cameroun security agents if they ever show up again in our public hearings at the Yaoundé Military Tribunal,
  7. The refusal by the Military State Counsel to issue “Visitor’s Passes”or “Permits”to our families and friends who are supposed to bring us food,
  8. The non-implementation of the 1st March 2019 Federal High Court of Abuja judgements requesting that we and other refugees abducted in Nigeria and illegally deported to Cameroun be returned to Nigeria as our abduction and deportation was illegal and a violation of our fundamental rights and International law.

Please take note that this strike will be called off only after our Lawyers confirm that they have met our compatriots and when modalities to address all the above issues are agreed upon.

Yours Sincerely,

Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe.

Cc:

  • United Nation Secretary General
  • African Union
  • European Union
  • Commonwealth
  • Embassy of the United States of America, Yaoundé;
  • British High Commission, Yaoundé;
  • French Embassy Yaoundé;
  • German Embassy, Yaoundé;
  • Nigerian High Commission, Yaoundé;
  • Other Diplomatic Missions
  • International and National CSO;
  • International and local Press Agencies.
Ambazonia: Communications Secretary urges probe into Kondengui and Buea prison shooting

30, July 2019

Ambazonia: Communications Secretary urges probe into Kondengui and Buea prison shooting 0

The Southern Cameroons Communications Secretary, Milton Taka has called for an investigation into the killing of Ambazonia detainees in Yaoundé and the Buea prison facilities during a protest staged in the Yaounde Central prison and that of Buea in the Southern Zone of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

According to Ambazonia Interim Government intelligence services, the Southern Cameroons victims succumbed to wounds from bullets fired by Cameroon government forces deployed to the detention centers under the direct supervision of French Cameroun Justice Minister Laurent Esso.

In a statement on Sunday, Southern Cameroons Vice President Dabney Yerima called on the AU, EU and the UN authorities to investigate and hold all the French Cameroun perpetrators of violence against the people of Southern Cameroons accountable.

The Southern Cameroons State television, SCBC reported that troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime without any mercy, confronted the Southern Cameroons detainees with live ammunition. In Yaounde, at least four detainees were shot dead while 5 others died in SED where they were detained after the riot. There are conflicting figures as to those killed in the Buea prison. What we do know is that the killings in Buea were carried out by elements of the French Cameroun’s Rapid Intervention Battalion originally deployed to the Southern Zone of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to crush the resistance.

The Ambazonia Interim Government ordered a complete and total lockdown of the territory for two days beginning today the 30th of July 2019. The killings have prompted some Ambazonian cabinet members to call for the so-called talks with the Yaounde regime in Geneva, Switzerland to be suspended.

In a telephone conversation with our chief political correspondent, the Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima observed that “Ambazonians cannot sit at any negotiating table with those killing Southern Cameroons women and children. Killing peaceful Southern Cameroons civilians is an unacceptable crime that needs immediate accountability”.

At the time of filing this report news filtered that an armed group sponsored by the French Cameroun Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji has kidnapped a Roman Catholic priest Rev Fr Peter Foleng around the Bamenda district. Our source hinted that the action took place between Friday and Sunday and nothing seems to have been heard about the Man of God.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Brazil: Police end Neymar rape probe over lack of evidence

30, July 2019

Brazil: Police end Neymar rape probe over lack of evidence 0

Police in Brazil probing rape allegations against football superstar Neymar have closed the case due to a lack of evidence, the Sao Paulo attorney general’s office said Monday.

The police decision will be sent to prosecutors on Tuesday, who will have 15 days to evaluate the case, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office told AFP.

A final ruling on the case will be made by a judge.

A spokesman for Neymar said he was not able to comment on the police decision. Sao Paulo police are due to hold a news conference on Tuesday.

Neymar has vehemently denied allegations he raped a Brazilian woman in a Paris hotel in May.

The ugly affair, which has dominated headlines and conversations in the soccer-mad country for weeks, overshadowed Brazil’s preparations for the Copa America.

Hosts Brazil went on to win South America’s showcase tournament earlier this month without their biggest player, who was injured in a warm-up friendly before the opening match.

The scandal blew up on June 2 when Neymar published a seven-minute video on Instagram, where he had first been in contact with Najila Trindade, revealing that he had been accused of rape.

In an attempt to defend himself against the allegations, Neymar’s video was accompanied by WhatsApp messages and images of his encounter with Trindade — without her consent, possibly breaking Brazilian law.

– Police questioning –

The drama quickly snowballed. Extracts of a televised interview with Trindade, in which she accused Neymar of “aggression together with rape,” aired just one hour before he was about to enter the pitch for the pre-Copa game between Brazil and Qatar.

Neymar tore his right ankle ligament in the 20th minute, ruling him out of the tournament.

In the following weeks, Neymar was questioned by police over the WhatsApp messages.

He also appeared before police in Sao Paulo, where Trindade had filed her complaint at the end of May.

As the case dragged on, police filed a defamation suit against Trindade — who was dropped by multiple lawyers — after she insinuated the force was corrupt.

“The police are bought, aren’t they? Or am I crazy?” she told television channel SBT last month in response to questions over the police investigation of an alleged theft of a tablet device from her home that contained a short video she claims has conclusive evidence she was assaulted.

Despite the seriousness of the allegations, polls have shown that most Brazilians believe Neymar is innocent.

Controversy has followed the Paris Saint-Germain player, who flew back to France earlier this month.

Neymar, who joined PSG in 2017, has made clear he wants to return to Barcelona.

He has yet to feature during PSG’s pre-season tour in Asia and French media reported he will miss Tuesday’s game against Sydney in China.

Source: AFP

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