Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Murder at Presbyterian Church Center Bamenda, Population Shocked

 Prof. Theodosia McMoli, Dean of the faculty of Medicine at the Cameroon Christian University was found dead in her house at the Ntamulung Presbyterian Church premise. Police stormed her residence last Tuesday June 5, 2012 and break into her house just to discover she was tied and wrapped in her own bed-sheet. Her death has shocked the entire PCC family yet the prime suspect whose name we got as Seydou (Sule) is still hunted by police. As police in Bamenda launched a manhunt for the prime suspect, we gathered that the prime suspect was Prof. Theodosia McMoli's driver. Information gathered indicates that Prof. Theodosia attended a meeting at the main Campus of the Christian University at Bali. She returned not transported by her driver. But the driver was spotted sources say with Prof. Theodosia's car (mark Toyota tercel) driving off the church center with one other, after she had returned from the meeting in Bali. Yet no one could suspect what might have transpired. Ever since Seydou was spotted driving out, he had since not returned with the car. Yet police search goes on for his where about.  Sources hinted that the next day, she was not available to continue the meeting. Suspicion reached it peak when her phone could be reached, car not seen as well as the driver. The Eye gathered University officials contacted the police. When policemen finally stormed her residence, and with the authorization from the state counsel, they ordered that the window be broken into. This was when policemen found her dead on her bed. Her legs and hands were tied before being wrapped in her bedsheet and placed on her bed. Police and medical doctors are said to have examined her remains before she was taken to the mortuary as investigations ensued.
It should be noted that Prof. Theodosa retired from the University of Buea to become the Dean of the faculty of Medicine of the Cameroon Christian University owned by the PCC. Her dead has added to the ongoing legal battle as to who assassinated Rev. Kenji, Pastor of the PCC. 



 Prof. Theodosia Eyong McMoli: The Female Role Model: 1938-2012
Her accolades emblazon her name in any academic hall of fame worldwide and we can only usher in a triumphant beating of the drums as we call the roll of some of her trailblazing achievements in their rightful order:
  • Manyu Division's First Medical Doctor
  • Cameroon's Second Female Doctor
  • Anglophone Cameroon's First Ophthalmologist 
  • Pioneer Dean of  Faculty of  Health Sciences, University of Buea,
  • Pioneer Director of the Higher Institute of Health Sciences, Cameroon Christian University, Bali.
Yes, Professor Theodosia Eyong McMoli blazed a trail for young men and women alike to follow, yet she was so unassuming and even self-effacing. If she walked down the street you could pass her by without a second thought.  Her humble disposition amongst ordinary people never betrayed that she was one of those whose exceptional achievements placed her squarely in the Cameroon pantheon of academic fame with the likes of Late Prof. Victor Anomah Ngu.
 Born on June 15, 1938, she was the first of five children of the legendary headmaster of the 30’s and 40’s, Mr. Mathias Ebot Ojongtambia and Princess Susana Ebai-Nso of the Oben royal family of Mamfe Town. She definitely set the pace for her siblings Mrs. Jedida Zumafor, Mrs. Faustina Yembe, Mr. Jasper Ojongtambia and Mr. Cyril Ojongtambia.
In 1954, Aunty Theo or Sister Theo, as she was fondly called enrolled in Queens College, Ede, Southern Nigeria, an elite all girls secondary school founded in 1952 to honor Queen Elizabeth II’s ascension to the throne.  At this time there were no secondary education avenues for women in Cameroon.  She later enrolled at the University of Ibadan to study medicine. This was a formidable feat given the limited opportunities. Consequently, when she graduated as a medical doctor in 1967, she inscribed her name in the academic hall of fame in multiple categories. She went on to England where she earned a Doctor of Ophthalmology from the London School of Physicians in 1972 and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS), Edinburgh in 1976. After working in England  and enduring the challenges of a young African doctor working in a predominantly white environment, she returned to Nigeria in 1978 taking up employment at the Lagos University College of Medicine as lecturer Grade I. Here, she showed her academic prowess once again, rising to the top of her profession as Consultant/Associate Professor. She was also inducted as a fellow of the West African College of Surgeons (FWACS), and Fellow of the Nigerian Medical Council (FNMC). It is also in Nigeria where she met her husband, a fellow Cameroonian Mr.  Lucas Mokongo McMoli with whom she has two children, Malafa and Ojong. The McMoli’s returned to Cameroon in 1986 and Prof. McMoli was employed as head of Ophthalmology at the Yaoundé University Teaching Hospital popularly known by its French acronym C.U.S.S until 1993 when she again blazed the trail to become the founding Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences in the newly opened University of Buea.  While at the University of Buea she rose to the rank of full professor. In 2004, after 11 years of meritorious groundbreaking service at the university, she retired from the Cameroon civil service.
Even in retirement she continued to share her vast medical knowledge with the Cameroon community. As an ardent Christian of the Presbyterian Church, she was not only on the board of Presbyterian health services; she became a doctor at the Presbyterian Health Center in Bafoussam. With the intention of tapping into her vast experience and immediate knowledge of setting up a faculty of health sciences, she was appointed as the pioneer Director of the Higher Institute of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the newly established Cameroon Christian University. It is in this position that she met her untimely death inside her own house under circumstances still under investigation.
*Biography courtesy of Dr. Joyce Ashuntantang



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

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