Fleet-footed Amadou Ali escapes Boko Haram attack

  Wife, cook, Kolofata mayor & five family members kidnapped

 

By Sylvanus Ezieh Acha’ana in Yaounde with field reports from Hamadina Hamza in Maroua

Amadou Ali

The vice prime minister, minister delegate at the presidency in charge of relations with the assemblies, Amadou Ali narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the dreaded Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram; thanks to elements of the elite corps, the Rapid Intervention Unit, BIR who aided him to flee at lightening speed.

The incident which took place on Sunday morning in his Kolofata village of origin in the  Mayo Sava division, Far North region however saw the kidnapping of his wife, cook, the town’s mayor and five of the mayor’s family members. It is reported that several people were killed when the over 200 Boko Haram members invaded the locality.  

While Mayor Seini Boukar Lamine who doubles as the lamido of Kolofata and others were kidnapped, Amadou Ali, who was breaking his fast for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan at the time of the attack, managed to escape to a neighbouring town.

The minister of communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, in a press statement Sunday evening confirmed the incident. Tchiroma said details of the attack were still sketchy, but mooted that the militants numbered over 200. He told the press conference that the Cameroonian army had taken the town of Kolofata back under control after repulsing the militants, who he said had used "brutal and unqualified violence."

Unofficial reports say the Cameroonian elite corps popularly known as BIR also lost two soldiers in the deadly confrontation. It is not yet clear if Boko Haram lost any of its militants during the fire exchanges.

Boko Haram, an Islamist group which made international headlines with the abduction of 200 Nigerian schoolgirls in April has intensified its violence on Cameroon of recent. At least three other Cameroonian soldiers and three police officers have been killed by the group between July 10 and July 28. Their activities have never gone beyond the Far North region, where their base is reportedly presently located.

Some 22 suspected Boko Haram militants who had been held in Cameroon's northern hub of Maroua since March were last Friday issued prison sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years. It is not yet clear if the attacks were related to the sentencing of the militants.
The attack comes at the time Biya has created an Operational Command Unit in the region. Shortly before the creation of the Command Unit, battalions of soldiers had been ferried to the Far North to stem the rising spate of the Group’s activities. Cameroon has deployed more than 1,000 soldiers along its border to help combat the Nigerian armed group.

But interestingly, it would seem as if the Group is reinforcing proportionally to government’s fortification.

Sunday’s developments have cast doubts on recent media reports that Ali could be sponsoring Boko Haram against the regime. L’Oeil du Sahel, a biweekly newspaper specialised in exclusive reports on the Grand North had few weeks ago alleged that Ali was one of the brains behind Boko Haram in Cameroon.

But with the abduction of his wife and the killing of his brother by the same group he was alleged to be funding, Ali may be vindicated of the allegations. 

Troops disrupt Chief Ayamba’s “state’’ funeral

From Njingang Godwin and Mua Patrick Mughe on special assignment in Mamfe

 Late Chief Ayambe of SCNC

As earlier suspected, heavily-armed troops were last weekend deployed by the Yaounde authorities to disrupt the planned “state’’ funeral that was programmed for the fallen SCNC national chairman, Chief Ette Otun Ayamba.  A high-powered police squad from the Mobile Intervention Unit (GMI) in Buea stormed Mamfe on Friday July 25, 2014; the day which was programmed for Chief Ayamba’s corpse removal.  Also stationed at the mortuary were gendarmes and soldiers.

The squad, headed by a Five-Star police commissioner surrounded Chief Ayamba’s premises; another took control of the mortuary at Besongabang, while the third besieged the hotel belonging to the main organizer of the funeral, Ako Abunaw. Over 300 Southern Cameroonians who had arrived and assembled at the hotel to get further directives were trapped inside the hotel.

 Hon. Paul Ayah’s convoy that had taken off from Akwaya via Bahuru-Bamenda was blocked on the way while Southern Cameroonian activists who left Buea, Kumba, Mutengene, Tiko and Limbe were blocked at Bateke by heavily-armed security officers. Other accounts have it that those spotted entering Mamfe in groups were rounded up and detained.

The special coffin prepared by Diaspora SCNC militants abroad was blocked at Eyumodjock. The police seized the coffin and confiscated all the burial and funeral materials flown in from Europe and USA.

On July 26, 2014, all vehicles entering Mamfe from the Bamenda or Kumba end were stopped and thoroughly searched. Anyone found with SCNC literature, Chief Ayamba’s  funeral  program or Southern Cameroons flag was not only brought down, but made to sit on the tarmac and later transferred to an unknown destination.

Chief Ayamba’s widow was coerced into signing an undertaking that there will be nothing of SCNC at the funeral, else the husband will not be buried. She was forced to make an announcement to this effect. As the corpse left the mortuary, five police, gendarme and BIR vehicles, loaded with heavily armed men followed, rendering the occasion a veritable official funeral. Despite the intimidating presence of troops, freedom songs, dance, chanting and blasting of horns by bike-riders characterized the convoy from the mortuary to the compound.

Matters however came to a head when one of Chief Ayamba’s daughters took a photograph of the deceased; dressed in SCNC regalia and approached the police commissioner, hurling  insults at him; challenging them to summon the courage by facing her. She not only gave them a dressing down but lectured them on the heroic deeds and acts of Ayamba as a fighter, a statesman and a true Southern Cameroons patriot. She threw more invectives at the authorities of La Republique du Cameroun for daring to deprive her father of a befitting burial.

Attempts by an overzealous pro-regime family member to stop the reading of Chief Ayamba’s biography hit the rock as Larry Ayamba seized the microphone and speedily read out the hero’s biography, skipping only sections that mentioned SCNC and the Southern Cameroons. The family succeeded to put the Southern Cameroons’ flag on the coffin while the Bahai family made the interment prayers.
It should be recalled that the funeral of Chief Ayamba was expected to see all SCNC factions reconcile and a new national chairman elected at the Mamfe rendezvous which unfortunately could not hold because of the troop-disruption.

Court slams Tsimi Evouna 188MFCFA for wrongful demolition

By Amindeh Blaise Atabong in Yaounde 

 

Tsimi Evouna: YCC governemnet delegate

The appellant jurisdiction of the administrative bench of the supreme court on July 23, 2014 confirmed the payment; by the Yaounde city council to the American citizen, Mary Abeck Akwa epouse Taminang the sum of 188MFCFA. The amount represents an award of damages in her favour following an act of wrongful demolition by the Yaounde city council on the instruction of its government delegate, Tsimi Evouna Gilbert.

Tsimi Evouna burnt his fingers when on May 10, 2007, he instructed officials of the Yaounde city council in flagrant violation of the law to demolish a building that the US citizen was constructing at the Golf neigbourhood in the nation’s capital . Counsel for Mary Abeck approached the Yaounde city council for an out of court settlement of the matter but owing to the fact that there was no response from the city council, the administrative bench of the supreme court was seized with an astronomical claim of 1.688.880.000.

The court administrative bench of the supreme court had on September 7, 2011, passed a judgment in favour of Mary Abeck Akwa, in the sum of 188.880.000FCFA.

The procureur general of the supreme court filed an appeal against the judgment based on the fact that the amount awarded was exorbitant. The Yaounde city council appealed against the said judgment and Mary Abeck Akwa, also crossed appeal on grounds that the amount was insignificant.

After the exchange of submissions by all the protagonists and the report of the rappoteur, the matter was enrolled for hearing at the appellate jurisdiction of the administrative bench of the supreme court.

When the matter was called, neither the city council nor their counsel appeared even though there was proof in the court’s file that summonses to appear were regularly served on them. With no reason for the absence of the Yaounde city council advanced, the court decided to go ahead to hear the matter in their absence.

 When hearing commenced, the rappoteur intimated in his report that the award of damages be directed against the city council and not the state of Cameroon and that the award of the lower court in the sum of 188.880.000FCFA be maintained.

When the floor was given to Barrister Fombad Mujem, counsel for Mary Abeck, he in a thunderous address held the administrative bench of the supreme court spellbound for over thirty minutes ; arguing why the court should increase the award of 188.880.000FCFA that was made by the lower jurisdiction. H e argued that contrary to the averments of the state counsel, it is a trite principle in law that for breach of contract, the quantum of damages is to place the victim at the position he would have been if the contract was executed fully.

He argued that if Mary Abeck had completed her building, giving the rate of rents in that particular area of Yaounde, the building could easily reach rents of five million per month and as of the time the judgment was passed, the rents would have fetched her, 400.000.000FCFA and that as of today, the building would have fetched her four billion.

So Barrister Fombad urged the court to increase the special and general damages to one billion, six hundred and eighty eight hundred and eighty thousand as claimed at the lower court. Barrister Fombad intimated that by virtue of the fact that the city council engaged on signing a cancellation of the permit and back-dating it, it is a sign of bad faith that should not be condoned by the court.

The matter was set aside for judgment and the court took two hours of recess to deliberate for judgment. When the court resumed at about 4.15pm, judgment was handed down by the first president of the supreme court, Justice Clement Atangana.

In his judgment, the court dismissed the appeal of the procureur general and upheld the two appeals of the Yaounde city council and Mary Abeck Akwa. The court maintained the award of188.880.000FCFA as was awarded by the lower court and ordered that the damages be executed against the Yaounde city council that has a separate juristic personality with financial autonomy.

Contacted after the pronouncement of the judgment, Barrister Fombad, who appeared seemingly satisfied, told pressmen that he still thought that a slightly higher award would have been more equitable for all the parties. For her part, Mary Abeck Akwa epouse Taminang, said her first and most important satisfaction is that the fact that the highest court of the state of Cameroon has proven that no one is above the law.

FEICOM, MINSANTE sign health partnership

By Amindeh Blaise Atabong in Yaounde

The Special Council Support Fund for Mutual Assistance, better known by its French acronym as FEICOM, is poised than ever before to make stronger and even more efficient, health structures in council areas across the national territory. This determination was echoed last Thursday by the general manager of FEICOM, Philippe Camille Akoa during the signing ceremony of a partnership agreement with the ministry of public health, MINSANTE.

FEICOM GM(L) & Public Health Minister(R)

So far, FEICOM’s intention of strengthening the health sector has been materialised in the form of a partnership framework agreement with the ministry of public health which is in charge of strategies in the health sector.

The agreement which falls in line with the policy of decentralisation, marked by the devolution of powers and resources by the state to local councils, is aimed at ensuring good local governance in the area of health. Also, the agreement will guarantee that regional and local authorities have the necessary infrastructures needed for their emergence, by supporting and coordinating council health infrastructures through construction, equipment and maintenance projects. Equally, the FEICOM/MINSANTE partnership will strengthen consistency of FEICOM’s action with government’s strategies in the health domain.

Following the signing of the four year agreement by Andre Mama Fouda on behalf of MINSANTE and  Philipe Camille Akoa on behalf of FEICOM, councils will henceforth benefit from technical assistance in building, equipping and maintaining health infrastructures with respect to the health map. In addition, there shall be strategic focus on the funding of council projects and raising of awareness of regional and local authorities to local health issues.

Going by the agreement, FEICOM is obliged to provide regional and local authorities with its expertise in identifying and designing council and inter-council health projects likely to benefit form national and international cooperation funding. Moreover, FEICOM is expected to finance council and inter-council projects in terms of health, having direct impact on building, equipping, managing and maintaining health infrastructures in accordance with the procedures in place. As if not enough, the institution will stick to the orientations of the health sector strategy and all the strategy papers and programmes ensuing thereof, in accordance with its financial assistance code.

MINSANTE on its part will: provide all necessary information for the capacity building of regional and local authorities in the field of health; facilitate administrative formalities for the implementation of projects under the framework; involve FEICOM in the implementation of national strategies; support FEICOM in sourcing for technical and financial partners amongst other.

The partnership agreement which both parties have vowed to respect, it is expected will enhance the quality of life of dwellers in various municipalities at affordable cost.

It is worth noting that prior to this partnership agreement, FEICOM recently sponsored 28 health-related projects worth over 146 million FCFA. Between 2010 and 2013, FEICOM disbursed 20 553 000 FCFA to councils to address the health needs of their community.