Yaoundé: The head of counter-espionage summoned in the case of Martinez Zogo’s death ⁰

Divisional Commissioner Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, head of the General Directorate of External Research (DGRE), the Cameroonian counterintelligence service, had his presence requested at the State Secretariat for Defence on 1 February.

According to sources close to the investigation, Léopold Maxime Eko Eko has been summoned for questioning in connection with the assassination of journalist Martinez Zogo, whose body was discovered on the morning of 22 January, following that of Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Danwe, Director of Operations of the Direction générale de la recherche extérieure (DGRE), who is believed to have orchestrated Zogo’s kidnapping, custody, torture, and murder. Eko Eko’s arrest is the first significant step towards an investigation that has been slow to develop.

Use of force methods

It has long been believed that the authorities may have had something to do with the murder. On 27 January, Secretary General of the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, ordered that the investigation be opened, causing hope to abound.

Before his August 2010 appointment as head of the DGRE, Eko Eko was Director of General Intelligence at the Délégation générale à la sûreté nationale, DGSN, (General Delegation for National Security). Already a police commissioner with a Doctorate in Information and Communication Sciences from l’université Paris-Est, Eko Eko has long been a supporter of treating perceived enemies of the state with force, as was the case with the disappearance of Guérandi Mbara’s as revealed in 2014 by us; Mbara being one of the masterminds of the 6 April 1984 coup d’état.

Mbara was kidnapped in Bulgaria, repatriated to Cameroon, and delivered into the hands of the DGRE, never to be seen nor heard from again.

According to our sources, Eko Eko has been temporarily replaced by Deputy Director General Monkouop Mouminou, Divisional Commissioner.

Source: Africa Report