Anglophone Crisis: Barrister Nico Halle will not seek another mandate as head of the Bar Association of Cameroon ¹

There is too much uncertainty about the future of the Bar Association of Cameroon caused by the current Southern Cameroons strike action. We gathered that among the difficult situations facing the Cameroon Bar is the renewal of the mandate of the management team that ended on January 31st, 2017.

Barrister Ntumfor Nico Halle was elected as President of the General Assembly of the Bar Association of Cameroon on the 31^st of January 2015 and Barrister Patrick Kleiss Kouanou held the position of Vice President. Cameroon Concord News has been reliably informed that no election is being considered even though the mandate of the management team has come to an end.  The Southern Cameroons crisis has reportedly erected a stone wall against the convening of a bar council general assembly.

The Ntumfor Nico Halle has been quoted as saying that “it is impossible to convene a General Assembly of the Order. We must wait for the situation to calm down to organize the work. The Bar of Cameroon is united. You cannot sit down while the other parties have problems. The courts do not operate in these two regions. So it’s impossible to do anything for the Order.”

Asked if the crisis continues beyond February, the much respected Ntumfor Nico Halle pointed out that he will have to evoke “a case of force majeure, and the lawyers will have to decide on the way forward.” A journalist with a sister publication, Cameroon Intelligence Report hinted at the time of filing this report that Barrister Halle Nico will not seek a second term as president of the general assembly.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai