The Special Criminal Court will begin the trial of Gervais Mendo Ze, the former general manager of the Cameroon Radio and Television, CRTV tomorrow November the 23^rd 2016. Professor Gervais Mendo Ze alongside three of his former collaborators; Yap Abdou, Yvette Siéwe and Luc Nyassa will be auditioned tomorrow in Yaounde.  Gervais Mendo Ze, will be heard in a case of alleged misappropriation of nearly 18 billion 364 million 546 thousand 702 FCFA relating to the management of TV License payments.

Depicting the Special Criminal Court established to prosecute alleged corrupt government officials and the several Alibabas responsible for pilfering from the public treasury as the President’s court is no misnomer.  We call it the President’s court because it is one instrument of power through which the President is reining in on perceived opponents from within his CPDM power conduit. An attribute of a genuine court is the fairness of the trial proceedings in cases which are brought before the court for trial. It is not the number of convictions entered against accused.  A court is legitimate and recognized as such because of its exercise of judicial, executive, legislative and administrative independence.  A court that is independent must be accessible to all citizens after all, is equality before the law, not a constitutionally protected value? The Special Criminal Court is lacking in these attributes of impartiality, judicial independence and accessibility.  It is perceived more as the President’s Court than a Court of Justice.

Establishing this court was President Biya’s way of saving himself the embarrassment of being humiliated during his perennial trips abroad as the President of the most corrupt countries in the world.  This ranking of the country as the most corrupt or one of the most corrupt countries had a potential to hamper President Biya’s personal pecuniary interests far from the borders of Cameroon.  There was therefore a personal interest need to establish the court.  Another personal interest need was to avail himself of a legal tool under his direct control to consolidate absolute power, blackmail potential rebels and competitors within the system and to stifle any form of institutional opposition. He perceived the court as a tool with which to whitewash his more than thirty years of corrupt governance and the rape of the economy.

With the war against Boko Haram, the fight against corruption using the Special Criminal Court has afforded Paul Biya justification contest in the next institutionally flawed elections in order to externalize power purportedly to direct the war against terror and the war against corruption.  True to the name the President’s Court, the President has exclusive preserve in referring cases to the Special Court and the power to terminate them. He decides who will be arrested, who will be investigated and who will serve time and who will not.

In one instance, he ordered a detained the late Minister Bapes Bapes released from remand custody at Kondengui when a warrant was issued for his arrest without the presidential fiat.  Recently Titus Edzoa a former Secretary-General at the Presidency of the Republic benefited from a purported Presidential pardon whose primary purpose was the release of a French citizen Thiery Atangana from jail. The fear of a presidential referral to the Special Criminal Court on additional charges of corruption under a practice devolved under the supervision of Paul Biya called “rouleur compresseur” pushed Titus Edzoa   to rejoin the CPDM Party without a public resignation or repudiation of his membership of the party on which he intended to contest presidential elections prior to his incarceration.  Edzoa was a victim of this system of presidential justice when new charges were brought against him when his first imprisonment was about to end in order to maintain him in prison. Cameroonians want the rule of law to be the guarding principle on which justice is administered in the name of the people.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Seven Cameroon elite forces were killed late on Monday in a violent attack attributed to Boko Haram. Cameroon Concord News was reliably informed that the Nigerian Islamic sect staged the attacks in the Lake Chad district of Darak that claimed the lives of the 7 servicemen deployed to the Joint Multinational Force.

Our source hinted that those soldiers killed included the head of a mechanized division of the Africa force, a captain of the Cameroonian army. The head of the local vigilance committee was also killed.  Shortly before the incident, a young female suicide bomber was neutralized in the IDP camp at Kolofata.

The suicide bomber who was shot dead by elements of the Joint Multinational Force reportedly carried half a dozen explosive that were defused by BIR deminers. Boko Haram attacks are experiencing an upsurge at the end of the rainy season.

By Rita Akana

Some 2000 inhabitants of the city of Bamenda have staged a massive demonstration against the deplorable state of roads in the metropolis. The protesters also chanted anti-government slogans condemning the regime for the criminal neglect of the North West region.  The Monday November 21st protest also clamoured for the departure of the Chinese contractors working with the Bamenda Urban Council government delegate.

The strike action that was led by a journalist took the city by storm and gained the support of the population that voiced appeals for a return to the Southern Cameroons state. State radio and television painted the strike action as a minor incident orchestrated by a group of young men armed with sticks who threatened to beat shop owners in the Bamenda main market.

The mammoth crowd blocked access points at Ngeng junction, Nkwen market and Cow Street. Police used teargas against the peaceful demonstrators but no casualty has been reported so far.  The North West governor has not commented on the happenings. At press time, the police were clearing off the materials used in blocking the roads including burnt tyres. It is important to include in this report that the government delegate to the Bamenda urban council has come under serious attacks ever since he was appointed some 7 years ago.

By Cham Victor Bama in Bamenda

Investigations have opened today in Yaoundé, against Lieutenant Colonel Ghislain Joël Mboutou, military attaché at the Cameroon embassy in Morocco, for alleged money laundering in France, misappropriation and corruption which Cameroon Concord News sources say could pave the way for a case against Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o, former Minister of Defense and current boss of the Ministry of Transport.

According to our informant, the military hierarchy, set up and dispatched to Morocco, a commission which brought back to Cameroon, Ghislain Joël Mboutou. Colonel Mboutou was picked up at the Yaounde Nsimalen international airport and rushed to the national gendarmerie headquarters to be auditioned today. The defense attaché at the Cameroonian representation in Morocco was arrested by French intelligence agents as he was trying to finalize a real estate transaction in Paris.

The senior officer was arrested in possession of 700,000 Euros in cash (more than 455 million FCFA) and a search of his home in Paris, raised the amount to 1.3 million Euros. He reportedly told French intelligence officers that the money was intended for the acquisition of real estate. He was released on bail mindful of the diplomatic passport in his keeping.

We recently spoke to someone in Minister Alain Mebe Ngo’o’s entourage who hinted that the affair was mounted from scratch and was only manipulation and storytelling.  However, a journalist with a sister publication, Cameroon Intelligence Report revealed that Colonel Mboutou Ghislain Joël, worked for 7 years as deputy head of the military secretariat when Minister Mebe Ngo’o  was the powerful Minister of Defense.

Minister Mebe Ngo’o  has been regularly presented as a nephew of the President of the Republic. The Transport Minister’s political future now depends on statements that Colonel Mboutou will make today. The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime for 34 years has been rocked by multiples of scandals in a country where more than 20 million people live below UN poverty line.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Rita Akana

The strike action announced by the Anglophone teachers’ trade unions is holding as planned. In a show of blind bravado and naive brutal force, the CPDM regime’s ill trained soldiers, Gendarmes and police have been deployed to the towns of Bamenda, Kumbo, Nkambe, Kumba, Muyuka, Limbe, Mutengene, Buea and Tiko.  A spokesman for the teachers was quoted as saying that “this excessive show of force belittles the state of Cameroon because it has never dialogue with those who are complainants and have never solved the issues raised.”

The marginalization of English speaking Cameroonians have been complete and total in all the facets of life ranging from job opportunities, job creation, and educational facilities as well as the issue of attempting to gang up and rape all the cherished Anglo-Saxon values. Today the teachers have joined the already striking Common Law lawyers and other stake holders to continue denouncing this act of grave violation of the Constitution.  The Biya Francophone Beti-Ewondo regime has always wanted to completely delete the Anglophone values. Francophones are now teaching in Anglophone High Schools as well as in our Anglo-Saxon institutions of learning like Universities and Polytechnics.

The government has drafted thousands of troops to Bamenda, Kumba, Victoria, Buea and Tiko. These are meant to foment trouble today Monday the 21^st of November 2016 and blame it on the unions. The unions have not called for street protests and have issued a strongly worded statement urging teachers to stay at home and also informing parents to keep their children home and watch over them closely.

The teacher’s statement signed by Tassang Wilfred of CATTU observed that when street protest shall become necessary, the unions shall do that and shall assume responsibility. Cameroon Concord News gathered the unions were not in the Yaoundé meeting and have stated they want SOLUTIONS not Resolutions.

By Bernard Ngouche Ndim

Journalists from other African countries are threatening to boycott the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations beginning tomorrow in Yaoundé.  While the Confederation of African Football has awarded accreditation to journalists for the media coverage of the female AFCON 2016, which will kick off tomorrow Saturday, the presidential security department is now forcing all CAF accredited journalists to present a special badge emanating from their service to gain access to the opening matches and the final.

Cameroon Concord News has learnt that the presidential security operates a different security system and their decision reigns supreme whenever President Paul Biya is expected to take part in an event. This is a security measure unprecedented in other countries in such circumstances. The measure taken by the security services of the 83-year-old leader is not shared by journalists some of whom are considering a boycott.

By Rita Akana