9, July 2019

It was a rather long day in court. The French Cameroun escort vans from the anti-terrorist special Gendarmerie unit better known by its French acronym GPIGN showed up at the Kondengui High-Security Prison in Yaoundé to transport the Southern Cameroons leaders to court at about 11.25 am.

The Ambazonian leaders got to court by midday and were greeted by a college of 60 lawyers from Bamenda, Kumbo, Buea, Kumba, Victoria, Tiko, Douala and Yaoundé led by Lead Counsel Batonier emeritus Eta Besong Jr including an impressive crowd of family members, friends and hundreds of Ambazonians despite the heavy deployment of troops in and around the court premises. Southern Cameroonians came in their numbers and encouraged their leaders and reminded them to remain resolute.

Today’s court session was presided over by Lieutenant Colonel Miss Njone Jacques Baudouine and two civilian judges identified by our chief intelligence officer as Magistrates Ngouongue and Edou Mewoutou Armand. The Francophone tribunal started at about 12.45pm with the usual military honours. The President opened the session and had barely explained the reasons for the last adjournment and how proceedings were going to be when Batonier Eta Besong Jr took the floor for and on behalf of the defense, raised issues with the composition of the court that included two civilian Magistrates against whom there was a pending Recusal Application that had not yet been determined by the President of the court of appeal in Yaounde.

Eta Besong’s eloquent arguments were backed up by brilliant submissions from Barristers Paddy Yong, Suh Fuh Benjamin, Akuwiyadze Joseph and Maitre Simh Emmanuel who iced the cake of defense submissions in persuasive French language.

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