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Friday, July 27, 2012

Six Barons of the Biya Regime Slammed Life Sentences, Sparrowhawk for Life Jails?

In all, six barons of the Biya regime have been given life sentences in connection with proceedings concerning Operation Sparrowhawk. These are respectively Alphonse Siyam Siewe former Minister of Mines and Director of the Autonomous Port of Douala (Pad), Bartholomew and Kamdem Assan'a Mba Thompson sentenced to life in the context of the trial on the embezzlement of public funds to pad. The judgment was delivered by the Court of Appeals for the Coast June 11, 2009. Then there Kingué Eric Paul, former mayor of the town of Njombe Penja sentenced to life by the High Court (Tgi) of Mungo in 2011. He is accused of embezzling money meant for the installation of a water network in the town of Snec Penja. Then Zacchaeus finally come Mungwe Forjindam, former CEO of Shipyard and Industrial Cameroon (CNIC) and John Simon Ngwang worker at Chantier Navale. They are accused of having diverted funds at the CNIC. Their verdict was delivered by the  Wouri High Court last July 20, 2012.At the Douala Port Authority, 13 people have been arrested and sentenced on embezzlement charges. Among them, the former government delegate to the Douala City Council, Eduoard Etonde Ekoto. They were charged for siphoning for 40 billion FCFA.  This sum was latter reduced to12 billion at the end of the trial pending the verdict which was delivered on 13 December 2007. All sentences were then revised upwards. The jail terms were increased from 30 years to life sentences.As for Paul Eric Kingué, CPDM mayor for Njombe-Penja, came after a series of trials and convictions. First he was sentenced to six years imprisonment by the Moungo Court of First Instance for his involvement in the February 2008 rioting. On appeal, his sentence was reduced to half but few days later, another condemnation fell on him on the14th of January 2011. He was slammed a 10 years prison jail term for complicity in forgery and falsification of public and diversion of money. He was latter acquitted of the charges  yet few days before his acquittal, he was slammed a  life sentence for embezzlement of 10 million CFA francs. The money which it is alleged was intended to be used to install a water system at Council Hall.Paul Eric Kingué  like Forjindam who is also alleged to to have been sentenced to life imprisonment for embezzling 206 million CFA francs also appealed and wrote to Biya. The cases will open on appeal. But before this sentence, Forjindam has already been convicted in another case of embezzlement of 978 million CFA francs to 12 years, and an additional 15 years jail term by the Court of First Instance and the Littoral Court of Appeal. Seemingly, anyone caught in the dragnet of the sparrowhawk would serve a life sentence from every indication reasons why the man in the street is more concern with money being recovered than jail terms. The system to many is kangaroo and is intended to settle scores with members of the so-called G11. G11, it should be noted was tagged as a generation that will take over pover in the country after President Biya which was in 2011. Yet, it came to past that Biya in 2011 presented his candidature and won with a (crushing majority),

When News Breaks Out, We Break In. Minute by Minute Report on Cameroon and Africa

1 comment:

Idrissa Talba said...


The decisions were taken by the court that did the job it was actually supposed to do. The trials were fair and the verdict cannot be contested. Even if all our prisons were to be filled just by those who embezzle our money, it does not matter, enough is enough!