7, December 2019
Professor Ephraim Ngwafor suffers major setback in efforts to take control of SOBA UK LTD 0
The British legal system has brought untold misery to Prof Ephraim Ngwafor in his fight to take control of a UK limited company SOBA UK (SASSE OLD BOYS ASSOCIATION) – a name used by the original alumni group.
Cameroon Concord News understands that SOBA UK currently has two groups using the same name, the original group consisting of over 110 members who are the applicant in the matter, and a newly created dissident group with two members being the directors of the disputed limited company as well as the respondents. The pro CPDM smaller group has not published a registration list but our London Bureau Chief was reliably informed that they are less than 20 members involved.
The UK Company Names Tribunal is currently reviewing the witness statements from Professor Ephraim Ngwafor in support of the actions taken in August 2017 to incorporate a limited company called SOBA UK (Company Registration Number 10933239) by Thomas Adamu (as director) and Francis Niba Ngwa (as Secretary).
In a statement issued to the Cameroon Concord News Group prior to the historic SOBA UK Residential Convention in Colchester, members of original SOBA UK stated that this incorporation was done in bad faith as both Mr Adamu and Mr Ngwa held no positions of responsibility in SOBA and acted on their own to take advantage of the fact that the alumni association in the UK was not formally incorporated as a limited company, despite operating as a unincorporated alumni group for some 50 years in the UK.
Events took a dramatic turn and the incorporation of SOBA UK LTD precipitated a series of actions by Prof Ngwafor as National President of SOBA in Cameroon to take control by proxy and to give legitimacy to the directors of the company who are not members of the original group.
Prof Ngwafor’s actions have been painted as being out of line and illegitimate. But his diabolic harsh ploy was to rewrite and use a new SOBA constitution in 2018 without ratification to retrospectively make his intervention possible.
We gathered that Prof Ngwafor has directly managed the witness submissions from Cameroon through a UK representative, Mr Aaron Wood, and has roped in the principal of Sasse College to give a witness statement on a UK limited company dispute which has nothing to do with Sasse College.
Interestingly, the president of SOBA America Dr Betrand Fote stated in his witness statement for the respondents that he had pledged his allegiance to Prof Ngwafor upon his own election as president of SOBA America. The intervention of these overseas power actors for the respondents has rendered any form of mediation between the disputed parties virtually impossible, given that the directors of the limited company are merely spectators of the unfolding drama.
The Company Names Tribunal has accepted the validity of the complaints made by members of the original SOBA UK Group, against the incorporation of the SOBA UK LTD. However, the respondent’s witness statements have suffered a setback when the UK adjudicator stated that “they did not refer to the proceedings to which they relate”.
The adjudicator specifically listed witness statements for the respondents from Professor Ephraim Ndeh Ngwafor, Reverend Father Kevin Sakwe Nanje (Principal of Sasse College), Emanuel Junior Eta-Besong, Sako Burnley, Dr Bertrand Pokam Fote (President of SOBA America) and Mr Aaron Ronald Wood and has given them 2 weeks to resubmit. This is a huge setback because the directors of the company are relying on the intervention of SOBA Cameroon rather than on the validity of the reason for the incorporation of the limited company.
The Tribunal also stated that upon reviewing the witness statements from Mr Wood and his exhibits, it proposes to treat them as hearsay evidence and the adjudicator will give such weight as they deserve.
Cameroon Concord News believes that the defence being put forward by Prof Ngwafor and other witnesses for the respondents remains unclear, given that they are domiciled overseas and do not have any legal responsibilities for a UK limited company, either as directors or shareholders. The current company directors being absent have deferred the responsibilities for the defence of their limited company to SOBA Cameroon and the president of SOBA America, Dr Bertrand Fote.
Regardless of whether the directors play a role in the proceedings or not they are the ones listed as respondents and any claims for costs, if they were not successful, will still fall on them. Mr Thomas Adamu, who as a student was expelled from Sasse College in his third year in 1984 for truancy and disruptive behavior is the man setting the scene for the latest impasse in SOBA.
The General Assembly of SOBA UK took action to suspend Mr Adamu in 2017 for being consistently inconsistent with SOBA UK code of conduct. It is ironic that the incumbent Principal of Sasse College, Reverend Father Kevin Sakwe Nanje is providing a witness statement to a UK limited company dispute to align with the callous actions of Mr Adamu who as a student was dismissed by his predecessor. Sasse College is going through hard times with only about 250 students remaining and receiving education in temporary accommodation away from the college campus.
A senior UK law practitioner opined that, whilst the latest update from the adjudicator will not affect the substantive legal grounds on which the matter is judged, it does help enforce the picture that the respondents are chaotic and ill-advised.
The legal arguments of this dispute, which is a test case of its kind, will be on whether Mr Thomas Adamu incorporated the limited company in good faith at the time of the registration, knowing fully well that he was not authorized by the group to which he was registered and a group that existed and used the name for many decades prior to this singular action in August 2017.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Chi Prudence Asong in London
12, December 2019
English speakers fight for equality in French-run Cameroon 0
Tamanjong Stella is upset because her children‘s school is closed, a victim of a bitter dispute between English-speaking protesters and the government of this largely French-speaking central African nation.
“The teachers say they cannot start classes until the government has removed the security forces that are posted everywhere,” said Stella, who lives in Bamenda, the capital of one of two English-speaking regions of Cameroon. “I do not know what is going to become of my children without school.”
Months of protests and clashes with government troops have not only forced schools to close, but the Internet also has been shutdown and dissidents have been jailed as English-speaking citizens demand equal rights.
Although English and French are both official languages, the English speakers say President Paul Biya, 83, discriminates against them by installing French teachers, judges and officials in their regions.
“Francophone teachers who teach English-speaking children must be removed and replaced by English-speaking teachers,” said Wilfried Tassang, executive secretary of the Cameroon Teachers Trade Unions, whose members walked out of their schools three months ago. “Francophone judges must also be removed to have English-speaking judges.”
In December, police killed at least four people in a market in Bamenda after a strike by teachers and lawyers. A month earlier, police killed one person and arrested more than 60 during violent protests there.
The conflict stems from Cameroon’s colonial past, when separate parts of the country achieved independence from Britain and France in the early 1960s and the English-speaking regions opted to join Cameroon rather than neighboring Nigeria. The resulting country was supposed to draw strength from its linguistic diversity.
“We should never forget that we are walking in the footsteps of our country’s founding fathers, our national heroes, who shed their blood to bequeath to posterity a nation that is united in its diversity,” Biya said late last year in a rare statement about the conflict. “Cameroon’s unity is therefore a precious legacy with which no one should take liberties.”
Critics said Biya could quell the protests by granting more powers to the English-speaking regions. “President Biya said that the founding fathers wanted a rich country with its diversity, but this diversity is also linguistic,” said George Ngwane, who has written books about Cameroon‘s politics.
A week before Biya issued his statement, security forces arrested the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, a banned group, without making the charges public. The group had organized “ghost town” demonstrations, where people refused to leave their homes or go to work.
Joseph Ayeah Chongsi, executive director of Human Rights, Peace and Advocacy, said Biya needed to hold accountable police who had killed citizens at protests or in jail or locked up activists without explanation.
“The Cameroonian government must set up an independent commission to investigate all suspected cases of death, particularly those arising during custody,” said Chongsi.
The problem has disrupted the economy of the two English-speaking regions, especially after Biya shut down the Internet in those provinces in mid-January.
Travel agent Awah Francis in Buea, capital of the southern English-speaking province, said he can’t book tickets or make financial transactions without Internet access.
“It is absolutely unacceptable,” Francis said. “I am obliged to travel to the capital to make money transfers, to receive my salary or even to consult my (email) mailbox. The banking establishments do not have a connection. We are tired of this suffering.”
The Roman Catholic Church, a powerful force in the country, offered to mediate the dispute, but so far Biya has instead asked chiefs, religious authorities and trade union leaders to find a solution to the crisis.
“There is need for dialogue, because violence, separation or anger never solves any problem. People must sit at the table to talk,” said Kwai Amos, a Catholic priest in the English-speaking Northwestern province.
That isn’t enough for many young adults who say they are missing opportunities and see a bleak future ahead.
Edmondo Bayo, 24, from the English-speaking Northwestern province, left Cameroon last year to find more opportunities in Europe and hopes to join his brother who is studying in England.
Bayo took part in the December protests, but says he was arrested and tortured for three days. He escaped his captors and made his way to Lesbos, Greece, along with about 30 other English-speaking Cameroonians who are living in a refugee camp waiting to be granted asylum in Europe.
”They call us young rebels, saying that we want to divide the country,” he said. “But as English-speaking people in Cameroon, we can‘t find a job.”
Edmondo Bayo, an English-speaking refugee from Cameroon inside the Moria refugee camp that was snowed in the beginning of January. He escaped his country to search for more opportunities in Europe.
Culled from Livingston Ledger