Politics

9, June 2016

President Biya’s Court to make public the Mebara verdict ⁰

Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from reliable sources at the Special Criminal Court that the verdict on case number 003 / RG- TCS / 2016 involving the former Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, Jean Atangana Mebara shall be made public on the 22^nd of June 2016.

Minister Mebara was charged for embezzlement of 5 million US dollars in a presidential jet scandal that rocked the Cameroonian nation. 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.

CIR

9, June 2016

French Senate votes to lift EU sanctions on Russia ⁰

The French Senate has voted for a resolution aimed at lifting EU sanctions that were imposed on Russia over the crisis in eastern Ukraine and reunification with Crimea back in 2014. An influential senator says the future of the French Republic is “inconceivable without dialogue with Russia.”

The non-binding motion was approved in the Luxembourg Palace on Wednesday with 302 senators voting in favor of the proposal and only 16 against the move, which stipulates a gradual scaling down of anti-Moscow restrictive measures.

According to French media reports, the motion cannot pressure the government because the renewal of the embargo is made in Brussels and requires unanimity of the 28 Member States. During the Senate debates on the draft resolution, Jean-Pierre Raffarin (seen below), the French premier from 2002 through 2005 and currently a senator, said “France’s future is inconceivable without dialogue with Russia… The text of the resolution is well-balanced and that’s why I’ll vote for it.”

Presstv

9, June 2016

Cameroon: Prime Minister Philemon Yang meets Sao Tome envoy ⁰

The Prime Minister Philemon Yang has met with Sao Tome and Principe’s former Prime Minister, Gabriel Arcanjo Ferreira da Costa. Cameroon Radio and Television reported that the 8^th of June 2016 meeting was intensive and productive.

Gabriel Arcanjo Ferreira was bearer of a private message from President Manuel Pinto da Costa of Sao Tome and Principe to Cameroon’s Head of State, Paul Biya.

The Republic of Sao Tome and Principe is a Portuguese-speaking island nation located in the Gulf of Guinea. It has a population of about 190.00 people and its capital city is Sao Tome.

CRTV/CIR

8, June 2016

Nigeria to stop military campaign in Niger Delta ⁰

Nigeria will scale down a military campaign in the oil-producing Niger Delta and talk to the Niger Delta Avengers militant group which has claimed a string of attacks there that sharply cut crude output, officials said. But the militant group said in a statement, without mentioning the government initiative, its mandate was “to liberate the Niger Delta people.” The government has also decided that the military presence in the region, which had been increased in the last few weeks, should be scaled down, a statement issued by the vice president’s office said on Tuesday.

The southern Delta swamps, where many complain of poverty and oil spills, have been hit by militant attacks on oil and gas pipelines which have brought Nigeria’s oil output to a 20-year low, and helped push oil prices to 2016 highs on Tuesday. President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed a team led by the national security adviser “to begin the process of a very intensive dialogue with those caught in the middle of this,” Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said late on Monday.

“I want to call on the militants to sheath their weapons and embrace dialogue with government,” he said. “We are making contacts with everybody who is involved, the ones that we can identify, through them, the ones that we can’t identify so that there is a lot more inclusiveness in this dialogue.” “Probably we will suspend the operations of the military in the region for a week or two for individuals in the creeks to converge for the dialogue,” he said. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who had been expected to travel to London to meet investors on Tuesday, instead met Niger Delta state governors and military chiefs to discuss ways to end the militancy.

A statement from Osinbajo’s office said it had been decided at the meeting that the military presence in the region should be “de-escalated,” although forces would be kept to provide security for the talks. Adding to the problems of authorities trying to stem the violence, a group in the southeast calling for secession declared support for the Avengers. “We support the Niger Delta Avengers,” said Uche Madu, a spokesman for the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob) which wants secession for the region which fought a civil war from 1967-70.

A former militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which laid down arms in 2009 under a government amnesty, accused the army of a “disproportionate use of force.” MEND, which was one of the largest militant groups, also said the Delta Avengers had attracted some of its former fighters. So far it has been unclear who is behind the Avengers. There was no immediate direct response from the Avengers on the dialogue initiative. On its Twitter account it only issued a statement framing MEND leaders as criminals. “Our struggle is focussed on the liberation of the People of Niger Delta from decades of divisive rule and exclusion,” it said. Kachikwu also said Nigeria’s oil output was between 1.5 million and 1.6 million barrels a day, down from 2.2 million barrels at the start of the year. “Over the last two months, we have probably lost about 600,000 barrels from various attacks of militants in the area,” he said.

DefenceWeb

8, June 2016

CPDM Senate approves Paris Climate Change Agreement ⁰

The bill to authorize the President of the Republic to ratify the Paris Agreement on Climate Change was yesterday, June 7, 2016 declared admissible for scrutiny by the Chairmen’s Conference of the Senate chaired by Senate President, Marcel Niat Njifenji. The bill was submitted by government, represented by the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation in charge of Regional and Local Authorities, Jules Doret Ndongo.

The Paris Climate Agreement was adopted during the 21^st session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 21) that held in the French capital from November 30 to December 13, 2015. The agreement, which was later signed in New York on April 22, 2016, aims at strengthening global riposte to threats posed by climate change within a context of sustainable development and the fight against poverty.

According to government, the ratification of the agreement by Cameroon is the expression of its will to synergize with the international community to fight climate change and could enable the country benefit from financial opportunities offered by its partners for the implementation of decisions taken at COP 21.

Cameroon Tribune

7, June 2016

Nigeria: Niger Delta Governors tell Buhari “drop corruption cases in the region” ⁰

Governors representing Niger Delta states have made a shock demand. The majority of the politicians are demanding that corruption cases in the region should be dropped. They believe President Buhari’s anti-corruption drive is fueling the Niger Delta Avengers insurgency campaign Governors of the South-South region who met with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House today called for the majority of corruption cases in the region to be dropped by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Sahara Reporters has reported.

The meeting was attended by the governors of Edo, Ondo, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa and Abia states, as well as the deputy governor of Cross River state. Our source said only the Governor of Edo state Adams Oshiomhole and the deputy Governor of Cross River opposed the others the iniative, who singled out the federal government’s anti-corruption initiative as the reason why Niger Delta Avengers are blowing up pipelines in the region.

Naija.com

7, June 2016

Nigeria: Ordinary ear infection takes Buhari to a London hospital ⁰

President Buhari reportedly has “a terrible cough that has persisted longer than the ear infection” – He may likely extend his 10-day trip to London to treat an ear infection because he also needs attention for the cough – A source said the president is expected to remain in outpatient care in the days following his medical visit. The Buhari administration is using the judiciary to prevent former government officials from traveling abroad for medicare.

There are indications that President Muhammadu Buhari may extend his 10-day vacation to London to treat an ear infection. Sahara Reporters reports that the president also has a terrible cough that has persisted longer than the ear infection and also needs to be examined for that.

Naija.com/CIR

7, June 2016

Malawi: Attacks on albinos unprecedented ⁰

Amnesty International has warned that the number of attacks on people with albinism has risen in Malawi, calling on authorities to bring those responsible for the crimes to justice. “The unprecedented wave of brutal attacks against people with albinism has created a climate of terror for this vulnerable group and their families,” Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s director for southern Africa, said on Tuesday.

The body parts of albinos, who lack pigments in their skin, hair and eyes, are sold for witchcraft in North Africa. Their body parts are believed to bring wealth and good luck and are prized in witchcraft for use in charms and magical potions. The report condemned the Malawian authorities for “leaving this population group at the mercy of criminal gangs who hunt them down for their body parts.”

Amnesty said campaigners, police authorities, families and community leaders have all said that the number of attacks have increased recently. According to the report, April was the bloodiest month for such attacks in Malawi, with at least four people murdered, including a child aged under two. The parents of the child have been arrested as suspects. Simeon Mawanza, the lead researcher of the Amnesty report, said children with albinism have been sold by their parents.

Presstv

7, June 2016

Goodluck Jonathan says he is being investigated by Buhari ⁰

Ex-president Goodluck Jonathan has disclosed today, June 6, that he is being investigated for corruption by the Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government. Jonathan said this in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg Tv, in London.

“I cannot say the country from the beginning of our independence, that there was no corruption, yes there has been corruption. “I did very well also, to curtail corruption. “My approach to corruption, was ‘don’t make money available for anyone to touch.

Vanguard

7, June 2016

Genocide Vote: Turkey threatens Germany ⁰

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says Turkey cannot remain silent toward the German parliament’s recognition of the Armenian killing as genocide. Speaking in an interview with state-run TRT Haber news television network on Tuesday, Cavusoglu said Turkey will take measures against the German resolution, without specifying those steps. “The German government has to say its official stance does not overlap with the German parliament resolution,” he said.

The Bundestag voted last week to recognize the 1915-1916 killings by the Ottoman Empire of the Armenians as “genocide.” Armenians claim that up to 1.5 million Armenian Christians were systematically slaughtered in eastern Turkey during World War I and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. Ankara rejects the term “genocide” and says 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians, and at least as many Turks perished between 1915 and 1917.

Presstv