The people of Mbinjong, Upper Bayang Sub Division in Manyu were yesterday mourning the death of legendary traditional ruler Chief Tabetah Ashu Tarkang who died at the extension of his palace in Yaounde on Thursday after a long battle with an undisclosed illness.

A family source hinted Cameroon Concord News that he died after visiting a private clinic in late afternoon yesterday. He was surrounded by his wife and some family members and he died very peacefully after a long illness that started last year.

His funeral is due to be held at his Mbinjong Village following directives from Minister Victor Mengot who also moonlights as senior elite from Mbinjong.

Cameroon Concord News Group Chairman Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, who wrote so many stories about the late Chief on the pages of the Herald newspaper, was amongst the first to pay tribute to the Manyu academic.

“It’s a very sad day and the end of an era,” he said. “I’ve known His Royal Highness Chief Dr Tabetah since the 90s and we had great days in MECA Yaounde and so many great moments in SWELA. He was a great mentor and a marvellous person to work with. We’ll miss him.”

Chief Tabetah was best-known as a peace maker in MECA Yaoundé particularly when the Agbor Tabi brothers were at daggers-drawn-positions.  

The onetime Special Adviser to Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge, whose wealth was believed to run into hundreds of millions of FCFA, also enjoyed something of a playboy image. He dated a string of beautiful women and finally got married to Sophie Besong Tabetah.

Chief Tabetah was credited with changing the face of Manyu politics with his calm approach to every political situation.

He remained one of the most prominent sword less patriotic Manyu soldier right up to his death, even though he had adopted a considerably lower profile in recent years.

Dr Tabetah Ashu Tarkang James was born in Mbinjong and was one of the Manyu children that the late Dr AD Mengot gave the opportunity of conquering education home and abroad.

He came to the fore in the 90s as lecturer at the Higher Teachers Training College in Yaoundé and pushed for the CPDM government to adopt a considerably more political view of the admission process into the Higher Teachers Training College.

Chief Dr Tabetah Ashu Tarkang James was a chartered member of the ruling CPDM party and bon viveur.

By Isong Asu in London

A citizen of Cameroon, Lovette Namatinga, 34, has been sentenced to serve 48 months in federal prison for defrauding a Bourbonnais, Ill., bank of nearly $300,000. At the sentencing hearing, on April 13, 2021, Senior U.S. District Judge Michael M. Mihm further ordered that Namatinga pay restitution in the amount of $278,201 to the bank and numerous other individual and business victims of the defendant’s fraud scheme.

Namatinga, of Owings Mills, Md., has remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since he was arrested on Oct. 7, 2019, at Washington Dulles International Airport by FDIC Office of Inspector General agents.

On Sept. 21, 2020, immediately prior to jury selection before his trial, Namatinga pleaded guilty to all counts of the indictment, four counts each of bank and wire fraud, as charged, related to his  defrauding Municipal Trust and Savings Bank, Bourbonnais, Ill. Namatinga admitted that he carried out the fraud from about February to April 2019, by falsely representing to the bank that the secretary of one of the bank’s customers requested that cashier’s checks be sent to Namatinga’s fraudulent company known as Keiko San Products Alimenticious, LLC. Namatinga is the registered agent for Keiko, and the four checks were mailed to his home address. Once the checks were deposited into Keiko bank accounts, Namatinga then transferred money from those accounts to his personal account or withdrew cash from those accounts.

In addition to the fraud committed through Municipal Trust & Savings Bank, Namatinga used his fraudulent business and multiple associated bank accounts to deposit and launder fraud proceeds from various other victims throughout the United States. Namatinga’s scheme, known as a business e-mail compromise scam, was just one such scheme in 2019 that resulted in more than 23,000 victims nationally, with an average loss of $75,000 per complaint, according to FBI crime statistics.

The FDIC Office of Inspector General conducted the case investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene L. Miller represented the government in the prosecution.

Source: United States Department of Justice

A war of words has reportedly erupted between Cameroon’s Electricity Regulatory Agency (Arsel) and the concessionaire for the distribution of electrical energy in Cameroon (Eneo). The regulator has accused the company of numerous acts of abuse against defenseless Cameroonian consumers, serious breaches and recurrent violations of the law.

Most of French and Southern Cameroons, including the capital Yaoundé and many major towns, lost power for days recently in one of the biggest blackouts to affect Cameroon ever since President Biya took office. The cause is not immediately clear as power failure continues to affect the entire nation.

Cameroon Concord News understands the Arsel-Eneo tug-of-war is a CPDM crime syndicate technique to shift the blame from failed government policies and corruption deep within the energy sector to Eneo.

On Monday, the Francophone dominated regulatory agency said in a statement that Eneo was involved in what it painted as non-respect and violation of the public electricity distribution regulations; abusive suspension of electricity supply to customers; untimely cuts in electricity supply, over-billing and imaginary frauds.

Added to this complex relationship between Arsel and Eneo, some customers, supplied by delivery points regularly connected to the metering equipment fixed outside their homes or offices have also been accused of fraud and gross violation of Article 13 of the energy regulation.

It is a common practice in French Cameroun particularly in the cities of Douala and Yaoundé for French speaking Cameroonians to take electrical energy outside the quantities measured by the meter by falsifying the indications of the meter, as well as breaking of the seals. 

The so-called Cameroon energy regulator has given Eneo a warning notice to comply with the law within a week. However, every aspect of the Cameroonian life is linked to the ruling CPDM crime syndicate where no one takes responsibility, no one apologize, and no one resigns.

Also playing the game of the consortium of crime syndicates, the Cameroonian League of Consumers (LCC) in a publicized declaration, congratulated Arsel for the formal notice against Eneo. A copy of the LCC statement signed by its executive president Delor Magellan Kamgaing was sent to the presidency of the republic.

For several months now, all major towns and cities in Cameroon have been suffering from untimely power cuts, causing serious economic repercussions and considerable domestic damage.

The company Eneo attributes these blackouts to the collapse of the electricity transmission network, the maintenance of which is a source of much ink and spit.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima has slammed the international community’s silence in the face of French Cameroun’s illegal acts in Ambazonia homeland.

During a recent trip to four Southern African states, the exiled Southern Cameroons leader echoed the position of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, leader of the Ambazonian nation that  Southern Cameroonians should be strong, determined, courageous and steadfast and that freedom and the independence of Southern Cameroons is priceless.

Vice President Yerima called for international action amid the continued detention of the Ambazonia leader and his top aides including thousands of innocent Southern Cameroonians in French Cameroun jails and detention facilities. Yerima also slammed the French government of President Emmanuel Macron as a key partner in exacerbating the suffering of millions of Southern Cameroonians.

In Namibia and Tanzania, Yerima told local MPs and civil rights leaders that La Republique du Cameroun’s military onslaught on Southern Cameroons has caused a severe shortage of basics, including fuel, food and water, leading to numerous deaths.

The mineral-rich but poverty-stricken Southern Cameroons territory has been unstable since the forced unification with French Cameroun.

Thousands of people have died since President Biya declared a war against the English speaking people four years ago and more than a quarter of the population have fled their homes. Of these, 75,000 are refugees in neighbouring Nigeria.

Even though bloodshed has receded in intensity over the last few months, violence remains chronic as Ambazonia Restoration Forces and militia groups hold sway over two-thirds of the rural areas.

By Chi Prudence Asong in London

A senior adviser to the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dr Patrick Ayuk said on Monday that it was evident the French Cameroun army will get rid of the 88-year-old President Biya as soon as possible and pave the way for intensive and productive dialogue between the two Cameroons.

The Southern Cameroons academic made the comments during a zoom presentation on how the Big Rubbergun Project will work to an audience in Dublin, Ireland and added that “Biya has been a trouble for La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons for more than four decades. With Biya and his gang still at the head of affairs in Yaounde, the two Cameroons are sailing through a very dangerous period amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The Ambazonia Interim Government has gotten intelligence that the French Cameroun military will get rid of Biya and his ruling CPDM party soonest” Dr Patrick Ayuk furthered.

Dr Patrick Ayuk also suggested that President Biya and his acolytes in Yaoundé should get mental checks and urged Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero to be prepared to intensify ghost operations in the decisive months ahead.  

Cameroon’s unwinnable war

At the heart of the crisis, which started in 2016, was a strike by teachers and lawyers, in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The professionals, supported by citizens of their areas, protested the unfair use of the French language and unjustified appointments of French speakers in their territories. Cameroon has been passing for a bilingual country. By 2017, the situation had spiralled out of control and developed into a fully-fledged separatist war. Both government forces and separatists are now bogged down in a conflict that observers say, can only be resolved through dialogue.

By Asu Vera Eyere

It is normal these days for chiefs in Cameroon to seek asylum in other places in the country, especially chiefs in the two English-speaking regions of the country who have been chased away by Southern Cameroonian separatists who view them as black legs, as well as desperate and hungry creatures who are at the beck and call of a government whose hallmarks are corruption and total indifference to the plight of the suffering population.

But Chief Inoni Ephraim of Bakingili, a former Prime Minister and a ruling party stalwart is taking the notion of asylum to a whole new level.

The beleaguered former Prime Minister, who is still a convict in Cameroon and is currently hiding in a mid-level apartment in France after his medical treatment, is having thoughts that may cause his former boss, the “evil God of Etoudi” to turn off the financial tap that has kept him going in Europe.

Mr. Inoni who had spent almost a decade in the Yaounde Maximum Security Prison for his involvement in the purchase of a defective aircraft for Mr. Biya, the “evil God of Etoudi”, was evacuated to France for him to have world-class healthcare after he developed multiple health issues due to poor prison conditions and the humiliation he and his family are still going through.

Though not totally healthy, the former Prime Minister who told his fellow Southwesterners that Cameroon was the best country in the world and that the Biya regime was  an oasis of human rights in Africa, is now thinking of seeking asylum in Europe, a source close to the desperate Prime Minister has informed the Cameroon Concord News Group.

The source, which has elected anonymity, said that the rapid depreciation and unfortunate death of Professor Gervais Mendo Ze, a one-time fanatical supporter of the ruling crime syndicate and a worshipper of the country’s president, Paul Biya, has caused Mr. Inoni to lose sleep.

The source added that Mr. Inoni who has been suffering from nightmares ever since Professor Gervais Mendo Ze died, has lost appetite and weight to the point where his family is concerned.

“Inoni, who was once a key member of the Biya regime, is full of regrets. The death of Prof. Mendo Ze has left him worried and it makes him feel that he might be the next,” the source said.

“His family is really worried and a close relative in Europe gave away the chief’s secret by saying that if he sought asylum in Europe, he could finally cut of the umbilical cord that firmly holds him to the devilish and incompetent regime that is destroying its own people,” the source added.

“Chief Inoni is almost 80 and he might be the oldest person to ever sick asylum in Europe for political reasons. This will really be ridiculous as he might not have the resources to sustain himself in Europe where life is very expensive,” the source said.

“Inoni should muster courage and return home where he could be allowed to return to his native Bakingili. Biya has a way of ridiculing his collaborators and from every indication, Inoni has had his fair share of humiliation and Biya knows that he will never speak up or speak out against his government,” the source stressed.

“Biya is very Machiallian. He knows how to keep his collaborators in check. He has put all of them on a diet of fear and many are losing weight to ensure that the ‘monarch’ does not see them as living better than they should. Though most of them know that Biya is old, tired and weak, they prefer to err on the side of caution,” he said.

“Biya has created a bunch of brutal pitbulls around him and those wicked pitbulls are ready and willing to bring down anybody who is not playing by their rules. The examples of Mendo Ze, Mebe Ngoh, and other former ministers languishing in the Yaounde Maximum Security Prison are constant reminders to any free radicals who may have presidential ambitions or whose views are not in lockstep with the monarch’s prescriptions, the source concluded.

But Inoni is still weighing his chances, though his family lawyer has advised him against seeking asylum which will not only cut him off government funds. Seeking asylum will also dent his reputation out of shape. Staying in Europe will be synonymous with acknowledging guilt. He who has a clean conscious will never fear any accusations, but the poor conditions in Kondengui have really broken down Inoni who once thought he was irreproachable and untouchable.

Though Yaounde government authorities are always putting on a brave face, many know that the wheel of life could turn against them at anytime. Many hate the way things are playing out, but they cannot talk. If any of them had doubts about what Biya, “the wicked monach” could do, those doubts have evaporated following the unfortunate death of the former CRTV choir master.

If Mendo Ze, the conductor, who sang for Biya like a common nightingale and raised him to the status of a messiah could be brought down like a pack of old cards, then anybody could be left for death in the Yaounde Maximum Security Prison. Nobody is above Biya’s malicious schemes. He is an old man who knows he will be exiting the world very soon, but does not want to go down alone. He is determined to destroy anything in his path before he yields to the inevitable.

Inoni must therefore weigh his options. He had chosen his side as a young man. He had decide to side with the devil where he occupied many senior positions. It would therefore be wise for him to stick to his decision to the end, if not, his family will soon be crying like Mendo Ze’s family.

Mendo Ze’s case is certainly not the worst and not the first. The outrage is just because of the graphic images that were brought to the world via social media.

Jerome Mendouga, a one-time Cameroon Ambassador to the United States, was also arrested and jailed at the Yaounde Maximum Security Prison for participating in the purchase of a defective aircraft for Paul Biya. He developed multiple illnesses while in jail. A mercy heart attack put him out of his misery.

His family has never recovered from the pain and though they are not talking publicly, they have vowed that they would never forgive Mr. Biya who sent their father, brother and husband to an early grave.

Pictures of Mr. Mendouga’s emaciated and ailing body were never brought to the world because android phones were not as developed as they are today and the Internet was not part of the prison infrastructure. The country has simply moved on and Mendouga and his unfortunate fate have simply become a footnote in the country’s destructive history.

The examples are legion. Former Prime Minister Inoni should think twice before he acts. The devil has already shown him some of his colors and it is up to him to take the right decision.

While Cameroonians dislike the pain Biya is inflicting on his former collaborators, they are not really sympathetic with this bunch of greedy people who have aided and abetted a regime that has transformed the country into an open-air cemetery.

Those who are languishing in jail clearly deserve their fate. In the 1990s, these former ministers hailed Mr. Biya while he was crushing his opponents, especially those who were members of opposition parties.

Today, the knife has turned inwards and even   members of Mr. Biya’s inner circle are having a tough time sleeping. Inoni should take his punishment in stride. He should know that wherever he goes to seek asylum, Cameroonians will show up with documents and pictures to demonstrate that he was a key architect of this government that has sent thousands of Cameroonians to an early grave.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Paris

Fear has gripped members of the Yaounde-based crime syndicate as some of their members start exiting the scene.

Mendo ze, the once popular general manager of the country’s network, CRTV, passed on Friday following a long illness due to a long jail term by a government he served selflessly.

But shortly after his departure, the syndicate’s 103-year-old Senate vice president, Nfon Victor Mukete, also bowed to the inevitable, creating panic in the nation’s capital.

The ruling party is seeing its base being eroded by something it cannot control. It should be recalled that most senior members of the syndicate are over 80 years old and the passing of about six of its members last week, has sent shivers down the spine of this bunch of people who have held their country captive for decades.

By the standards of the crime syndicate, anybody less than 80 years is considered a youth and the death last week of four of their members who are less than 80 years spoke to the danger the party could be facing in the days ahead.

The flood gates seem to be open and many ruling party members, many of whom are colonies of diseases, are trembling in their pants.

The question on many lips is: who is next? Below are some of those who have kicked the bucket, triggering a wave of fear among ruling party members.

Edmond Félix Etoundi was the Chief Executive Officer of Finexs S.A., one of the largest intercity transport companies in Cameroon. He leaves behind a rich CPDM heritage that reveals a fantastic Biya regime success story of a self-made man.

Garga Alim Hayatou, Secretary of State to the Minister of Public Health responsible for the fight against Epidemics and Pandemics and Lamido of Garoua was brought down by the coronavirus.

Monkam Pascal, an industrialist, a businessman. He had a special attachment to the Biya regime and the Cameroon’s corrupt institutions.

Martin Aristide Okouda, the former Minister of Public Works, died on Friday 9 April 2021 following an illness in Paris, France. Aged 70

Chief Mukete, former traditional ruler of the Bafaws reportedly died from an unknown illness

Gervais Mendo Ze, Former cabinet minister and general manager of the Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) died after he was released from the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison.

Princess Rabiatou Mamboune Njoya, sister of the Sultan of Bamoun, Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, died on 9 April 2021,

Gargoum Adoum Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs,

Alim Boukaro Business tycoon

Essomba Pierre, Secretary General at the Ministry of Territorial Administration

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai and Isong Asu

2021 is a year defined by the devastating coronavirus pandemic; La Republique du Cameroun is losing iconic defenders of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate who helped guaranteed President Biya’s continued stay in power.

Many of their names hold a prominent place in the collective consciousness — Edmond Félix Etoundi, Garga Alim Hayatou, Monkam Pascal, Essomba Pierre,  Martin Aristide Okouda— but Covid-19 restrictions is not limiting the CPDM public’s ability to mourn their loss in a year that is witnessing close to a thousand deaths from the coronavirus.

Cardinal Tumi a strong advocate for social justice who always dedicated great passion and commitment to the people of his diocese passed away on April 3. As we write, there has not been any reaction from the presidency of the republic.

But God is saying something as the Biya regime continues to say goodbye to many of its disciples. A cream of CPDM political and economic figures have died this 2021.

Some of the 2021 deaths struck down relatively barons of the corrupt regime in Yaoundé, leaving Cameroonians with some kind of schadenfreude feeling.

Here is a roll call of some influential CPDM figures that died recently (cause of death not cited as Covid-19 like HIV is a stigma in La Republique du Cameroun:

Edmond Félix Etoundi was the Chief Executive Officer of Finexs S.A., one of the largest intercity transport companies in Cameroon. He leaves behind a rich CPDM heritage that reveals a fantastic Biya regime success story of a self-made man.

Garga Alim Hayatou, Secretary of State to the Minister of Public Health responsible for the fight against Epidemics and Pandemics and Lamido of Garoua was brought down by the coronavirus.

Monkam Pascal, an industrialist, a businessman. He had a special attachment to the Biya regime and the Cameroon’s corrupt institutions.

Martin Aristide Okouda, the former Minister of Public Works, died on Friday 9 April 2021 following an illness in Paris, France. Aged 70

Chief Mukete, former traditional ruler of the Bafaws reportedly died from an unknown illness

Gervais Mendo Ze, Former cabinet minister and general manager of the Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) died after he was released from the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison.

Princess Rabiatou Mamboune Njoya, sister of the Sultan of Bamoun, Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, died on 9 April 2021,

Gargoum Adoum Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs,

Alim Boukaro Business tycoon

Essomba Pierre, Secretary General at the Ministry of Territorial Administration

By Isong Asu in London

The great former traditional ruler of the Bafaws has been reported dead – Nfon V.E. Mukete is said to have been battling an unknown illness since last year.  The Bafaw Traditional Council‎ is expected to formally announce the translation of Chief Mukete to his ancestors on Saturday, April 10 in the presence of other traditional Chiefs at the entrance of the palace.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that all the sub chiefs broke down in tears and wailed for the translated former Monarch who died aged 103. We also understand that the Paramount leader of the Bafaws Chief Ekoko Mukete was formally informed of the translation of his father, before it was made known to the sub chiefs and title holders.

Deep within the Bafaws of Meme Division in the South West Region, it is customary that when a current or former supreme leader becomes an ancestor, he translates to a greater glory. T‎he King of the Bafaws does not die because he is an institution; he mainly translates to a high glory as an ancestor.

Amid all kinds of rumors following the Bafaw paramount leader’s uncharacteristic absence from the opening of the House of Senate in Yaoundé last year, Nfon V.E.Mukete was last seen paying probably his last respect to the Senate President Marcel Niat.

The Bafaw Monarch abdicated the throne and following a palace crisis that involved his children Abel, Mbe, Diko, Ekale, Ebako, Ekoko, Chief V.E. Mukete handed over leadership to Ekoko Mukete.

In an interview in the French capital, Paris, Chief Mukete, the oldest member of the so-called Upper House of assembly and a long standing father of the reunification of French and British Southern Cameroons opined that the Biya regime failed woefully in its management of the Anglophone crisis and acknowledged that Southern Cameroonians were being marginalized. Mukete furthered that the creation of the commission for the promotion of bilingualism and multiculturalism was too little too late.

He dismissed the politics of a one and indivisible Cameroon stating that only a ten state federal structure would solve the current Anglophone crisis that has shaken the country for more than four years. However, upon his arrival from the European trip, the Bafaw supreme leader distanced himself from the Paris interview.

Chief Mukete’s influence went beyond the Southern Cameroons minority as he was a member of the Senate, the Economic and Social Council, the Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of the Board of Camtel.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers identified two Cameroon women as impostors at Washington Dulles International Airport on Monday with the help of biometric facial comparison technology.

The two women arrived at a CBP primary inspection booth separately after their flight arrived from Brussels, Belgium on Monday afternoon and each presented a U.S. passport to a CBP officer. CBP’s biometric facial comparison technology reported a mismatch between each woman and the true bearers of the U.S. passports.

The CBP primary inspection officer referred both women to a secondary examination. During separate interviews, both women immediately admitted that they purchased the U.S. passports. CBP determined the women to be impostors for deliberately attempting to use genuine travel documents that were lawfully issued to other people.

CBP is not releasing the women’s names because neither woman was criminally charged. Instead, CBP seized the passports and ordered the women to be expeditiously removed from the United States.

CBP uses biometric facial comparison technology to further secure and enhance the international arrivals process while protecting the privacy of all travelers. When travelers arrive from overseas, they pause for a photo at the primary inspection point. That photograph is then compared to the traveler’s passport or visa photo retrieved from government holdings.

Since September 2018, CBP has leveraged facial biometrics to prevent more than 500 imposters from illegally entering the United States.

“This is a great example of how Customs and Border Protection officers use their law enforcement experience coupled with biometric facial comparison technology to intercept impostors deliberately masquerading as lawful travelers,” said Keith Fleming, Acting Director of Field Operations for CBP’s Baltimore Field Office. “Impostors violate U.S. immigration law and may pose a serious threat to our national security.”

Source: Cbp.gov