“Nobody in the world will believe that Barrister Agbor Balla and Dr. Fontem are terrorists” ¹

The renowned Barrister Alice Nkom has appealed to the Biya regime to release the detained leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium including all Southern Cameroonians being held at the Kondengui High security prison in Yaoundé and elsewhere in Francophone Cameroun.  The human rights lawyer told STV news channel that the accusations of terrorism against the arrested Anglophone leaders were cynical.

Nkom said the Anglophone crisis is causing the nation great pain and erecting a stone wall between families and relations in the French and English speaking regions of the country. She argued that nobody in the world will believe Barrister Agbor Felix Nkongho and Dr Fontem Neba are terrorists. For her, the arrests of Southern Cameroonians are not helping to foster the business climate that President Paul Biya spoke during his recent visit to Italy. She pointed out that no right thinking investor can take Cameroon seriously and swore that Cameroon as a nation will pay dearly for the mess going on in Southern Cameroons.

Alice Nkom also said the Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, Laurent Esso acted unwisely and has failed woefully in his handling of the Southern Cameroons situation. For this experienced lawyer, the measures taken by the government to resolve the crisis in the Anglophone regions have been revolutionary and controversial.

“When you cut off communications to someone first you are violating a fundamental right. This is forbidden by the conventions you have signed. And secondly, it is an act of pure secession. And it is you Francophone who come to say that the others are secessionists?

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai