Prosecution should seek the death penalty against Belinga Amougou ⁰

The murder of two journalists Martinez Zogo and Jean Jacques Ola Bébé in Yaoundé is not a new development in Cameroon but it is also one that should prompt prosecutors to bring the death penalty on the table for men like Amougou Belinga found to be killing media men and women and looting the state.

President Biya as always is facing international condemnation for his brutal crackdown on opposition figures to his rule, age is telling on him, the Southern Cameroons uprising has become increasingly hydra-headed, Boko Haram is now in control of certain areas in the Far North region as CPDM defectors are joining forces with anything antagonistic with his regime.

It is now time for the judiciary in Cameroon to do something to cleanse Biya’s nasty legacy and that is imposing the death penalty on Belinga Amougou.

This tougher measure should come immediately including the implementation of the Canada peace plan aimed at halting the violence that has killed thousands of Southern Cameroonians according to United Nations estimates.

On Monday, security agents arrested business tycoon Amougou Belinga and a young journalist he recently promoted to the post of General Manager of his privately-owned television channel, Vision 4 for planning and teleguiding the barbaric murder of journalist and whistleblower Martinez Zogo and his close associate Jean Jacques Ola Bébé.

The late radio host of the program “Embouteillages” had been very critical against alleged corruptors and embezzlers of public funds. It is said that more than 22 people have been arrested in Yaoundé and are currently being interrogated at the Secretariat for Defense (SED).

Earlier today, forensic searches were conducted in the building hosting the head office of the French Cameroun mafia boss. The search was conducted by Colonel Mbarga, accompanied by two divisional commissioners and officers. Amougou Belinga was present as well as his lawyer, Charles Tchoungang. The building was searched from top to bottom. AMOUGOU BELINGA only refused to open a finger print lock safe where he said some of his blood money was.

Investigators also auditioned his wife, Sarah Amougou Belinga, a senior magistrate. The operation targeting his wife was led by Colonel Abena Ayissi Parfait. Justice Sarah Amougou Belinga refused to grant access to some rooms that were later on forcefully opened.

Biya reluctantly agreed to allow an investigation into the Zogo affair after pressure from Paris, Yaounde’s close ally, and the European Union, which threatened to refer Yaoundé to the UN Security Council, a serious diplomatic escalation that could have led to the collapse of the 40-year-old regime.

In a divided nation where atrocities are being recorded on a daily basis – common sense demands state prosecutors to seek a death penalty for Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga-to use his four names, stop the bloodshed in Southern Cameroons, withdraw Francophone civil administrators from English speaking Cameroon, release all Southern Cameroons detainees including Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides and start talks with the jailed Southern Cameroons leaders.

We of the Cameroon Concord News and the Cameroon Intelligence Report are calling on state prosecutors in Yaoundé to halt the killing machine against journalists in Cameroon and the Biya regime’s tactics to buy time and avert a showdown with the international community by sentencing Jean Pierre Amougou to death by hanging.

To this I put my name

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai