News

28, June 2016

28 killed and 60 injured in a gun and bomb attack in Istanbul Ataturk airport ⁰

At least 28 people have been killed and 60 more injured in a gun and bomb attack in Istanbul’s Atatürk international airport.

Late on Tuesday night, two terrorists blew themselves up as security forces were trying to block their progress into the airport.

According to Turkish officials, police forces started firing at suspects when they tried to pass the international terminal’s entry, before the security check.

Presstv

28, June 2016

Tears as Cameroonian media gurus are told National Anti-Corruption Commission boss earns a monthly salary of 7 million FCFA ⁰

Dieudonné Massi Gams, the CPDM President of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (CONAC) has made public his salary to the media. The Biya chosen man of God made the revelation on Monday, June 27, 2016 in Yaounde, the nation’s capital. The president of CONAC earns a monthly salary of 7 million FCFA (10,671.43 euros). Dieudonne Massi Gams boasted in front of journalists shedding tears when the amount was revealed that “My salary is seven (7) million FCFA per month for me not to be corrupt.”

The salary of Pastor Dieudonné Massi Gams, is 193 times higher than the guaranteed minimum wage which is set at 36,270 FCFA since July 2014 in Cameroon—– a CPDM privilege to the so called man of God but an injustice in a country where the applicable average wage is between 80 and 100 thousand FCFA. In addition to his salary, Rev. Dieudonné Massi Gams, has huge benefits, which he blatantly refused to disclosed to the press. Cameroon Concord News Yaounde city reporter who contributed to this report observed that, “Rev Massi Gams has no reason to envy some ministers who officially earn less than 800 000 FCFA per month, but the bribes exceed the limits of the imaginable”.

We gathered intelligence that the state takes care of his phone expenses, housing allowance, several vehicles for child and wife including fuel cost. The servants and guards including his many drivers loaded at the residence of the President of the CONAC are also paid by the Cameroonian tax payer. Despite these advantages granted by the CPDM crime syndicate to CONAC, corruption in the country is increasing at alarming proportion with some agents of CONAC including its leadership regularly quoted in local press for bribery and corruption scam.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai (Cameroon Concord News Group)

27, June 2016

Brexit: An increasing number of Britons rushing to apply for Irish passports ⁰

An increasing number of Britons are rushing to apply for Irish passports to be able to remain EU citizens after Britain voted to leave the bloc on Thursday, officials say. “Following the UK referendum, there has been a spike in interest in Irish passports in Northern Ireland, Great Britain and elsewhere, although there has been some exaggeration of demand,” Irish Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan said in a statement on Monday.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for the UK Post Office, tasked with handling passport applications, said that there has been a surge in the number of Irish passport seekers from Britain. “We have seen an unusually high number of people in Northern Ireland seeking Irish passport applications, though we do not have exact numbers or a breakdown by branch,” the spokeswoman said.

Those Britons with an Irish parent or grandparent and those, who were born in the Irish Republic or Northern Ireland, are entitled to an Irish passport. According to statistics, there are approximately six million people of Irish ancestry living in Britain. Being an EU citizen offers Britons a number of advantages. They can enjoy free movement rights, seek employment in other EU states without having a work permit, use public healthcare facilities across the bloc and benefit from welfare and other rights.

Thursday’s vote result has sent shock waves through the political and economic sectors both in the UK and in Europe. It has even led people to run a petition to call for a second referendum as a number of those, who voted to leave the bloc, have changed their minds. In Northern Ireland, post offices have run out of application forms and the Irish embassy in London has filed more than 4,000 passport inquiries in comparison to the 200 it usually receives on a normal day, according to a diplomatic source.

According to Flanagan, “The increased interest clearly points to a sense of concern among some UK passport holders that the rights they enjoy as EU citizens are about to abruptly end.” He warned that the sudden and unnecessary increase in applications would significantly increase pressure on turnaround times at passport offices. The spike even prompted a member of Northern Ireland’s largest Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, to ask the government in Dublin to open a passport office in Belfast to meet the soaring demands.

Following the release of the vote result, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced his resignation. “Britain is leaving the European Union but we must not turn our back on Europe or the rest of the world,” Cameron said on Monday during the first parliament session since the Brexit vote.

Presstv

27, June 2016

Kumba: 5 killed and many injured in Fiango accident ¹

Five people have been reportedly killed in an accident in Kumba, the chief town in Meme Division in the South West region. Cameroon Concord News gathered from police sources that the brakes of a caterpillar failed at Hill Top as the road construction machine was descending to Fiango. With no warning system on board the caterpillar, it eventually crushed many people on bikes before the driver succeeded to direct it to a building hosting a popular hotel known as K-Town Hotel in Fiango.

Five people were killed on the spot and many others seriously injured. Some of the wounded cases have been transferred to hospitals in Buea and Douala. Life will never be the same again for a little girl of about 8 yrs who had her legs chopped off in the accident. At the time of filing this report, our correspondent in Kumba reported that some of the victims have died at the Kumba General Hospital.

Cham Victor Bama (Cameroon Concord News Group)

27, June 2016

Michelle Obama expected in Liberia ⁰

American first lady Michelle Obama and her daughters will begin on Monday a visit to Liberia and then to Morocco. After two African stops, Michelle Obama and her entourage will visit the Kingdom of Spain.

Apart from her two daughters accompanying the US first lady, Cameroon Concord News understands Michelle’s mother is also in her delegation. Michelle Obama is expected to use the visit to encourage young African girls to go to school.

In Liberia, Michelle will meet President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Michelle will visit Spain on Wednesday where she will meet Queen Letizia.

Chi Prudence Asong (Cameroon Concord News Group)

27, June 2016

Wife of Congolese President wanted by US attorneys in Washington ⁰

Antoinette Sassou, wife of the Congolese head of state Sassou Nguesso, has been summoned by US attorneys in Washington. Cameroon Concord News is aware Madam Sassou Nguesso is wanted by a US court following a complaint from a pool of lawyers in a debt case that involves the Congolese government and the Commisimpex society.

The hydra-headed issue started as far back as 1992 when a Lebanese businessman, Mohsen Hojeij, claimed the Nguesso family and the Congolese government owed him a debt of nearly 100 million dollars. In 1993, the amount totaled € 675 million in 2013. In 2016, the debt is estimated at 1 billion (one billion). The complainant has handed over the case to a US law firm to track down the asset of the Sassou Nguesso family in the United States.

A source at the presidential palace in Brazzaville was quoted earlier today as saying the first lady will not respond to the summons of the American lawyers. However, the case opens the way to US investigators, to delve into the rich heritage of the Nguesso family. Thus, the properties of the Sassou Nguesso clan, including Willy Etoka, Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, Bruno Jean Richard Itoua, Denis Ngokana, Antoinette Sassou Nguesso via Cameroonian businessman Yaya Moussa, Claudia Sassou Nguesso are all now at the mercy of the American justice system.

Chi Prudence Asong (Cameroon Concord News Group)

27, June 2016

Revealed: Niger Delta Avengers using advanced technology to destroy oil installations ⁰

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari says militants affiliated with the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) are using advanced technology to destroy oil installations, highlighting that the group’s sabotaging activities against the oil-rich country amount to a “national problem.”

“The technology being deployed by the militants to destroy oil installations is high tech, the way they can go on high sea and international waters and target oil installations is a national problem,” Nigeria’s Daily Trust online newspaper Saturday quoted Buhari as saying in a meeting with leaders of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) party at the Presidential Villa in Aso Rock on the outskirts of the capital, Abuja, a day earlier.

The president added that the group was negatively affecting Nigeria’s development. “No insurance company will want to insure installations that will end up being blown up, and no banks will want to finance such installations,” Buhari stated. The militant group, mainly operating in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, publicly announced existence in March and since then has been blowing up gas and crude oil pipelines belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Delta State.

25, June 2016

Nigerian army reaffirms loyalty to President Buhari after recent coup rumor ⁰

The Nigerian Army has reaffirmed its loyalty to the civil authorities of the country and that an investigation will be conducted to track down all those behind the recent Coup rumor in the country. Cameroon Concord News understands that the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai held an emergency meeting in Abuja on Friday during which he reviewed the issue of security with senior government officials.

Sani Usman, the Nigerian Army spokesman said in a statement that the Nigerian Army as a product of democracy will never endorse any “anti-democratic mishap” let alone the overthrow of a regime. The Army has said it will always remain loyal to the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria while defending the integrity of the constitution and National territory. The Army has also renewed its allegiance and loyalty to the civil authorities and the Nigerian Constitution.

In a statement read over state radio and television from the office of the Chief of Staff, the army noted that “We want to assure the people to be confident that a Coup will not happen in the ranks of the Army and no longer in the ranks of members of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.” Rumors of a coup surfaced last Wednesday from a group called the Joint Task Force for the Liberation of the Niger Delta (JNDLF) and that some army officers were approached by Niger Delta militants to support the overthrow of Buhari.

Chi Prudence Asong (Cameroon Concord News Group)

25, June 2016

Cameroon: Ministerial convoy kills a 5 years old boy in Douala ⁰

A group of Cameroon government officials driving in a convoy from Japoma via Bille in Douala killed a 5 year old child on Friday the 24^th of June. The high powered CPDM delegation that included the Ministers of Youth, Sports and Physical Education traveled to Douala, the economic capital to assess work that was supposed to have been going on at the Douala-Japoma Sports Complex.

The forum that held at the Littoral Governor’s office situated at the Bonanjo district was told that work on the Japoma complex to be used during the Africa Cup of Nation 2019 had not started. Cameroon Concord News got intelligence that the natives were still waiting for their compensation package which usually comes with the expropriation of land.

The members of government were accompanied to Japoma by Mireille Bisseck, the Regional Delegate of Communication in the Littoral and Seraphin Magloire Fouda, who led the mission to plead with the people of Japoma. On their way back, the CPDM caravan killed a 5 year old boy and none of the heavy jeeps in the convoy stopped. The child was pronounced death and police have still not opened any investigation.

Ebong Kingsley (Cameroon Concord News Group)

25, June 2016

Cameroon: Minister Eyebe Ayissi donates to farmers cooperatives in the South and Center regions ⁰

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Henri Eyebe Ayissi has handed over to the Farmers’ cooperatives of the South and Centre Regions four pairs of Cassava transformation machines worth 50 million FCFA. The gifts were handed on the 24^th of June 2016 at the venue of the Development and Valorization Program of Roots Tubers and Plantains at Nkolbisson.

The machines donated are four types and specialized in processing the locally consumed stuff such as Miondo, Bobolo or batong, metumba, Cassava flour, and chips, and Gari. While handing the equipment he asked recipients to apply diligence as a watchful tool so to boost food production.

The Minister also visited the National Training Centre for Experimentation of Agricultural Machines where modern farming equipment such as tractors is kept. The Centre is specialized in training drivers and technicians on the use of tractors as farming equipment. The modern equipment has been put in place by the government to promote second Generation Agriculture.

Sama Ernest (Cameroon Concord News Group)