Higher judicial council presidency:

African commission mounts pressure on Biya to resign

Says his position as president does not give Cameroonian judiciary a free hand to adjudicate matters 

By Sylvanus Ezieh Acha’ana in Yaounde

Paul Biya

Following the series of court cases being filed against the Cameroon government at the African Commission, The Guardian Post has learnt from diplomatic sources in Yaounde that President Biya is being pressured to resign as chairman of the higher judicial council. Also under pressure to leave the council is the minister of justice and keeper of the seals, Laurent Esso who is vice president.

Nkosazana

The council appoints staff of the judiciary from magistrates to supreme court judges, promotes them and punishes those found wanting. The process, our informant says, is of “prior concern” to the court which puts the judiciary at the mercy of the executive. It also encourages Cameroonians to go abroad to seek justice on the excuse that judges who give their verdicts in disfavour of the government would be sanctioned by the judicial council.

The pressure is said to have been intensified after the jailed board chairman of the Douala Ports Authority, Colonel Etonde Ekotto took the Cameroon government to the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights also known as the African court last May. Michel Thierry Atangana who was jailed along with Titus Edzoa for embezzlement of public funds and later pardoned by a presidential decree after years in jail has also sued abroad to seek justice against the Biya regime.

It is against that backdrop, the diplomat says that pressure is being piled on President Biya and his minister to resign as earlier ruled by the African commission in the case filed by the SCNC. In the judgment, the commission ruled that President Biya should not only resign but “ensures that every person facing criminal charges be tried under the language he/she understands… In the alternative, the respondent state must ensure that interpreters are employed in courts to avoid jeopardizing the rights of accused.”

Such key recommendations, the source said, have not been respected by the Cameroon government which is a key member of the African Union, AU and signatory to the decision creating the court.

It is to give authority to the powers of the court and also avoid the embarrassment of being sued abroad by his own compatriots, The Guardian Post was told, that President Biya has been asked to step down from the judicial council.