A day in court with the Ambazonia leaders
The ten separatist leaders arrested in Nigeria and extradited to Cameroon 11 months ago appeared at the Yaounde military tribunal for their first public hearing on Thursday December 06.
It is exactly 09.05am when a white ‘Hiace’ van from the Kondengui maximum security prison sandwiched by two dendarmerie pickups with thirteen gendarmes as escorts drives into the premises of the Yaunde military tribunal.
Down step the Ambazonia leaders who take a steady walk into the court room where some lawyers had already been waiting as early as 8.00AM.
Another bike drives in with two gendarmes in civilian attire as security is beefed up around the courtyard with additional reinforcement from soldiers.
The detainees
-Sissiku Julius Ayuk Tabe is dressed in traditional Manyu regalia
-Nfor Ngala Nfor is dressed in a brown ‘Afritude’
-Dr. Shufai Blaise Berinyuy is dressed in a white ‘agbada’ a black traditional feather-less cap.
-Wilfred Tassang, in a multi-coloured check shirt, blue jeans and a white Nike sneakers.
-The rest of the detainees are all dressed in Black suits.
As they await the arrival of the magistrate, it was an opportunity to chat with lawyers and family members as could be seen with the strong embrace between Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho and Wilfred Tassang. Agbor Nkongho then engages in a long chat with Julius Ayuk Tabe as some lawyers use the opportunity to “sneak” selfies out of the detainees.
10.35AM: The President of the court Colonel Abega Mbezoa epse Eko Eko arrives and heads straight to her office while a security check is mounted at the entrance of the courtroom as everybody is screened, phones taken away before getting in.
11.18AM: The magistrate makes her way into the courtroom for proceedings to starts.
Ambazonia leaders deny their Cameroonian nationality
Col. Abega Mbezoa opens the session by praying all to be courteous and respectful as the State Prosecutor also calls for calm and serenity.
The Magistrate proceeds to call the accused one after the other starting with Julius Ayuk Tabe who is identified through his civil status but the magistrate says no nationality is mentioned on his file which Sissiku accepts.
Next called up, is Nfor Ngala Nfor who is also routinely identified but objects the magistrate when she describes him as a Cameroonian. “I am a Souther Cameroonian,” he says. “Ce pays n’existe pas encore,” the magistrate replied before moving on to the next person.
Be it Tassang Wilfred, or Dr. Kimeng Henry to the youngest Fidelis Che, the stressed to the court that they are “Ambazonians” and not” Cameroonians. “ça n’existe pas ici,” the magistrate kept repeating herself.
Preliminaries of the matter
After identifying the accused, time for the defense counsel which just two law firms duely constituted. However, lead counsel Barrister Fru John Nsoh stands to inform the magistrate that more firms had indicated their willingness to enrol their names in the defence party. He then forwards the files of the firms; In total, 47 law firms constitute the defence party. Some of the prominent law firms include Nsoh and partners Law Firm (of lead Counsel Barrister Fru John Nsoh), Cabinet Simh and Partners (of Maitre Emmanuel Simh), CNN Law Office (of Barrister Ndong Christopher), Agbor Nkongho Law Firm (of Barrister Agbor Nkongho), Cabinet Assira( Maitre Claude Assira), Liberty Law Firm, Mofaw Evaristus Law firm (of the newly-elected Bar General Assembly President)….etc
Over to the Civil party, Maitre Mangoua Duclaire’s representing the interest of the State is objected by the defense counsel who say he is not duly constituted. Barrister Fru John Nsoh says his opposite number can not enter his name in the civil party if he can not produce an authorisation from the Bar President According to Bar Nsoh,section 47 of the internal rules of the Cameroon Bar association warrants an authorization from the Bar President before a lawyer can file a case against a fellow lawyer before a court(given that two of the ten accused are lawyers).
After several arguments and counter arguments, Maitre Mangoua promises to produce a document in the next hearing.
Stumbling block on witnesses
Time for the “Commissaire du Gouvernement”(State Prosecutor), Engono Thaddée to produce the list of witnesses which he hands to the magistrate. However, the defence took cognissance of the list just on the eve of the hearing (Wednesday December 5 at 17.39) and they think it is a violation of the law. According to defence lawyers, Section 414(1,2,3) warrants the prosecution to produce the list of witnesses to the accused five days before hearing begins. Since this was not respected, the list should be thrown out and the court should consider the prosecution has no witness, the defence counsel said. This provoked another series of arguments and counter arguments forcing the magistrate to suspend hearing at 13.25 only to return at 15.27.
Within that interval, we discover that the ‘problematic list of witnesses’ is made up of 79 witnesses amongst whom is the Government Delegate to the Bamenda City Council Vincent Ndumu.
When the case resumes at 15.27pm, it was barely time for the magistrate to adjourn the matter first to December 19 so as to re-open the case(in her own words).
However, the defense pleads with the magistrate to extend the adjournment to next year so as to give them enough them prepare their client’s defence since they have hardly had access to them. After a series of reflection, they all agreed to adjoourn the case to January 10, 2019.
The Magistrate however warned the defence to be organise given the fact they were over 1000 in number, as “I read on soccial media”, she said indirectly making allusion to the Guardian Post’s headline of Thursday December 6.
Before the case came to a close, Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho prayed the court to facilitate access of the lawyers to their clients as well as family members which was welcomed by the magistrate.
It should be noted that the charges were not brought before the ten accused today but the notice board of the court states that the accused are charged with secession, promoting secession, acts of terrorism, financing acts of terrorism, revolution, insurrection, hostility against the state, creation of armed groups, propagation of false information, undermining internal and external security of the state, non possession of national identification card.
15.45 pm: End of the day as the Ambazonia leaders head straight to their vanas they wave the crowd that cheers them off.
AJUMANE AKAM FRANCIS
8 comments
Biya blundered by abducting His Excellency Sisiku and cabinet in Nigeria.
the biya’s regime knows it’s churning in its waste. The world is watching to see how biya and his cabal shall get out without being ridiculed and shamed in this case. This might be the fastest route to independence for Ambazonias What international law gave Cameroun’s criminal regime the right to abduct people legally living in Nigeria to French cameroun.. biya just started fumbling because he thought he cut off the head of a snake (His Excellency Sisiku). biya just noticed that every inch of this snake are masterful heads with brains thinking and acting faster than his depraved french cameroun ministers. biya is killing poor Ambazonians off forgetting that his head will soon be cut off in his own backyard. biya must be thinking of multiple ways to get out of his excrement. The best way is that biya withdraws from Ambazonia and escapes to france. Hunting and Killing peaceful Ambazonians renews the resolve resist biya from all directions.
“Biya blundered by abducting His Excellency Sisiku and cabinet in Nigeria”. Yes indeed from that court they are herding to the Prime Ministers lodge in Buea….
Those who are witnessing for Biya’s evil deeds will sooner or later suffer the consequences.We’re serving a God of retributive justice. It’s only the stubborn fly which follows the corpse to the grave.
And by the way, who did you say was to testify against his Excellency Sisiku Ayuk and his cabinet?
Did you say Vincent ndumu? Wonders shall never end!!!
On a much more serious note, I will only to say that God is good.
What we are witnessing today is a showcase of how inept the criminal of Etoudi is? The french slave call Biya thought by dehumanizing the Ambazonian leadership in the way they were ferried out of Nigeria like spoils of war, he was going to break their resolve. Unfortunately someone forgot to tell him that he was dealing with a proud, incorruptible and determine group of Ambazonians who only wish to see their people as well as their homeland free from the stranglehold, plundering and thievery of Ambazonian resources by the Etoudi gangsters for use to keep themselves and the french happy while Ambazonians wallow in abject poverty.
Vincent Ndumu and all those other Southern Cameroonians testifying against H E Sisiku and Co about what?why do Ambazonian people on the ground give air to all these elite traitors and their families?there is war declare by Biya to the entire people of Ambozonia yet many are cowards, sympathisers, too weak to fight back,they moan,complain,fold their hands and pray to God to solve their daily problems instead of retaliation,take real actions by every means to fight back,take matters into their hands to deal with all those colonial administrators and their families,their villages are being burnt, their communities kill daily yet the strong men and women run away instead of working together to fight back especially when they know their surroundings better than the enemy,groundnuts and sticks is not the only means to defend,petrol bombs,deadly traps track,gari traitors, black legs families,friends, manna does not fall from heaven,praying for peace will never stop biya’s war, it makes Ambazonian people weak giving french Cameroon terrorists army the advantage to kill thousands of Ambazonians, rape their children, burn their villages,abduct and brutalise the youths and vulnerable feely
WATCH OUT FOR ANY TRAITOR who testifiers AGAINST OUR PEOPLE. WE WILL SHIP THEM WITH THEIR FAMILIES. FRIENDS and COCONSPIRATORS to lrc permanently
This article is strange and biased. The title is one thing and the content another. It does not look like it us written by a trained journalist. What a shame! Those grass field Cameroonians are shoing off and should the price of their ignorance. They are nothing but terrorist. Keep on dreaming. Cameroon will never split up. You gonna have to refund the money you receive to sell Cameroon.
These people are not Ambazonians,who has look into their family history? they must me haunted, gari and properties burnt down together with their families, why these people are still living freely in Ambazonian only the devil knows,all the self defense groups have been sleeping for weeks now because they are not making Ambaland ungovernable despite the fact that they collect huge sums of funds together with their leaders always making noises,I am a supporter of the IG and feel it’s position on self defense has been weak and slow especially with the daily lrc killings and burning of villages, Christmas must not stop intensifying Ambazonian capabilities and their goals of pushing to Buea, the struggle must intensity because biya is playing games to capture, kill and disarm Amba boys,wake up the IG and all the other self defense groups & leaders must wake up before biya destroy them all