Rumours of the extradition of 12 members of the Interim Government alongside 39 others from Nigeria to Cameroon, seems to ubiquitous, with various authoritative sources confirming.
On Monday January 29 2018, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Communication Minister of La Republique du Cameroun, announced the arrival of the 47 Ambazonians to Yaounde. According to Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the alleged 47 extradited, landed in Yaounde on the dawn of that Monday morning.
“This is to announce to the international community that some the group of 47 terrorists, among them, Mr Ayuk Tabe, has for some hours been in the hands of Cameroonian justice, before which they will answer for their crimes…,” Tchiroma told reporters on Monday.
He later on told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that, even though he had not seen them, he is sure, the interim President, Sisiku AyukTabe, was among the 47 extradited.
“Yes I am positive! he is amongst the 47 others who have been arrested, extradited and who are right now in Cameroon”, Issa Tchiroma Bakary told the BBC.
Meanwhile, Nigerian lawyer, Barrister Funmi Falana (Legal Counsel of the abducted Amba leaders), confirmed the extradition of the 12 Ambazonian leaders, adding that “The Nigerian government was ashamed to announce the deportation, which is being celebrated by Cameroonian authorities as a major victory in their clampdown on the interim government.”
Barrister Falana condemned the deportation as “contemptuous of the proceedings pending before the Federal High Court.”
UN & Double Standards
If the information of the extradition of the Ambazonian leaders and others from Nigeria to Cameroon, were to be true, then it contradicts in the highest order, the earlier statement made by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
On January 24, 2018, the UNHCR made a statement on the refugee situation in Nigeria, as well as that of the Interim Leaders, to which they termed “Pro Independence Leadership”.
“For others still in detention, including the leadership of the pro-independence group, the government has agreed to grant UNHCR access for the determination of their status. The government has further reassured UNHCR that those detained would not be returned to Cameroon,” the statement read in part.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR in Abuja early on January 30 told Inner City Press that it has as yet no comment on the blatant forced repatriation or refoulement to Cameroon of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and 46 others while it seeks “explanations through official channels.”
On January 30 from Abuja, UNHCR’s Senior External Relations Officer Elizabeth Mpimbaza said, “UNHCR has seen the statement. The government gave UNHCR access to some of asylum seekers last week and we are seeking explanations through official channels.”
This interim response was followed, from Geneva, by an assignment of Inner City Press’ question to the same UNHCR spokesperson who partially responded when a UNHCR staffer called for “harder repression” by Biya in Cameroon, still never fully explained by UNHCR. We will have more on this as soon as possible.
Much earlier, still without substantive answer nine hours later, Inner City Press wrote to Guterres’ spokesmen and deputy:
“Today at the noon briefing, along with the confirmation that the Secretary General met with Omar al Bashir, Inner City Press’ weeks-old question about what the UN has done about those detained in Abuja was belatedly responded to, with the statement that the UN including the Deputy Secretary General had made inquiries. Soon after the noon briefing I became aware of a document in which the Cameroon Minister of Information says that Ayuk Tabe and more than 40 others have been transferred – or refouled — to Cameroon. This is a formal request for comment on the legality of this transfer, separately on the political advisability of this transfer given UN envoy Fall’s call for inclusive dialogue, and for all specifics of what the UN actually did about these detentions. On deadline, please confirm receipt.”
Inner City confirmed to have received an acknowledgement receipt has.
Whatever be the case, the singular the fact that Nigeria bypassed international law to extradite political refugees (under the watchful eyes of the world governing body), brings to question, the authenticity of the UN. Truth be told, the minority Southern Cameroons are continuously being slaughtered. They die every day from the hands of the brutal oppressor regime of Paul Biya.
If the UN has taken sides and now a complacent to ethnic cleansing, so be it. Whatever be the case, the people of Southern Cameroons will fight till eternity, until they be emancipated from the hands of Cameroun. That will be with or without the assistance of the United Nations.
By Lucas Muma,
Managing Editor, BaretaNews
6 comments
@Lucas Muma
It is people like you who are taking extreme stance , making the rest a home believe that they have the support of the UN in one article ,crying like a baby 2 months later when you find yourself contradicted by your own dream in the next .
Lumumba was killed in front of the UN ,Go to central african republic to see what they are doing there today –
KhADAFI Was killed in front of the hole world , The UN never condemn his killing let alone ask for any investigation.
Remember all what was said here about the support of Nigeria -where are we today ?
Yes desperation is bad ,it is clouding your judgement .
Shut the fuck up you frog eater. We don’t care about the UN, AU or whoever. We take our destiny in our own hands.
He simply made a clear point. If you believe in the UN and the so -called international law, then believe also that Sadam had weapons of Mass destruction. Believe also that France is the saviour of Africa.
The international law, the UN, etc. are there to safeguard white people interest and the interest of those who support their tyranny in the world.
We have have to fight for ourselves and we have to go to countries we can trust.
1) Nigeria is a number one corrupt country and bribery is not hidden there so la republic and France would bribe them easily and all laws would be breached peacefully with impunity.
2) Cameroon offered America a base for its military to check on the golf zone and to protect its oil interest in Nigeria and the Bakassi peninsula which they are exploiting with France peacefully. So america and France would support Biya for thier interest. They can even shout on the TV to fool people of being responsible nations but their interest drives them than so called laws.
3) France knows very well it cannot exploit the anglophone mentality as it is doing with la republic and other french colonies. thus it gives logistics and intelligence support to la republic.
4) Nigeria is afraid as well of the Biafran aggitation should the Southern Cameroon succeed. coupled with its corrupt officials, it is relatively beneficial for them to sacrifice Ambazonians and gain some money than to support them and create trouble for themselves in the near future.
5) What we have to do now is declare total disobedience and non cooperation with la republic. Tell all those still playing games that the times are up. No pretending around anymore. The level of resitance on the ground is what is needed to keep la republic thinking of what we are up to.
In moments like this, we must stop allowing our emotions to obfuscate our judgments. We are a people with a very rich culture and we should remain proud in the face of adversities. Hence, do not fall for provocations.
At this juncture, we need to look at where we went wrong, recalibrate and make sure we stay the course.
I have been making a lot of soul searching and there are lots of unnecessary mistakes that were made. Should I sit down now and cry over spilled milk? I do not think so. On the contrary, I am fired up.
Any person who has personally been in the presence of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe will know what I mean. Him and members of his cabinet give up a life of comfort to fight so as to correct a gross injustice that has continuously been perpetuated on Ambazonians for several years now, yet an incompetent, low-life thinks he will use them to gain more electoral favours from the french leeches? Like I said earlier, the Biya-Beti mafia will sooner than later realize that they just committed one of the greatest blunders the African continent has ever witnessed. Let them continue their imbecilic policies of “saraka politics” and see who will outlast the other.
Ambalanders, let us make sure we dig deep into our pockets and let self defense to the talking.
Sisiku Ayuk was for diplomacy,all patriotic SCs towards this struggle, with this act of kidnapping, must now concentrate on empowering self defense on the ground, this self defense must target,destroy lrc money making resources in Ambaland, they have stolen,owned this resources illegally,now they are using the money to buy weapons to kill the people,once self defense start to destroy their refineries, plantation truck etc countries who are exploiting these resources will start to withdraw their citizens, lrc will be broke financially then the UN and the world will have a wake up call,lrc will always replace their dead soldiers, as they are even paying Chadian forces to help them kill SCs,all those resources in SCs means nothing to the communities as all revenue goes to Douala / Yaounde,the only way SCs can drive colonial lrc out of their land, take back control of their rightful resources and develop their regions.
Well said Brother Mukong. The only problem I have with unsubstantiated reports of the where about of our kidnapped leaders is that they are too speculative, and they tend to inflame the emotions and passions of some our fellow Ambazonians who are soft hearted. I think we should tamp down these speculations and report only when there is concrete evidence of their precise where about. But what must unambiguously be made clear to the illiterate Buhari of Nigeria and his diaper wearing octogenarian counterpart of la Republique du Cameroun is that we shall hold them directly responsible for any harm visited upon our leaders. Francophone Cameroun and their French masters must understand that they will never bend us to their will and if they ever believed that by abducting our leaders they have succeeded in crushing our struggle, they are sorely mistaken. They haven’t seen anything yet. They will soon face a rude awakening.