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Ambazonia: Communications Secretary urges probe into Kondengui and Buea prison shooting

30, July 2019

Ambazonia: Communications Secretary urges probe into Kondengui and Buea prison shooting 0

The Southern Cameroons Communications Secretary, Milton Taka has called for an investigation into the killing of Ambazonia detainees in Yaoundé and the Buea prison facilities during a protest staged in the Yaounde Central prison and that of Buea in the Southern Zone of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

According to Ambazonia Interim Government intelligence services, the Southern Cameroons victims succumbed to wounds from bullets fired by Cameroon government forces deployed to the detention centers under the direct supervision of French Cameroun Justice Minister Laurent Esso.

In a statement on Sunday, Southern Cameroons Vice President Dabney Yerima called on the AU, EU and the UN authorities to investigate and hold all the French Cameroun perpetrators of violence against the people of Southern Cameroons accountable.

The Southern Cameroons State television, SCBC reported that troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime without any mercy, confronted the Southern Cameroons detainees with live ammunition. In Yaounde, at least four detainees were shot dead while 5 others died in SED where they were detained after the riot. There are conflicting figures as to those killed in the Buea prison. What we do know is that the killings in Buea were carried out by elements of the French Cameroun’s Rapid Intervention Battalion originally deployed to the Southern Zone of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to crush the resistance.

The Ambazonia Interim Government ordered a complete and total lockdown of the territory for two days beginning today the 30th of July 2019. The killings have prompted some Ambazonian cabinet members to call for the so-called talks with the Yaounde regime in Geneva, Switzerland to be suspended.

In a telephone conversation with our chief political correspondent, the Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima observed that “Ambazonians cannot sit at any negotiating table with those killing Southern Cameroons women and children. Killing peaceful Southern Cameroons civilians is an unacceptable crime that needs immediate accountability”.

At the time of filing this report news filtered that an armed group sponsored by the French Cameroun Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji has kidnapped a Roman Catholic priest Rev Fr Peter Foleng around the Bamenda district. Our source hinted that the action took place between Friday and Sunday and nothing seems to have been heard about the Man of God.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Brazil: Police end Neymar rape probe over lack of evidence

30, July 2019

Brazil: Police end Neymar rape probe over lack of evidence 0

Police in Brazil probing rape allegations against football superstar Neymar have closed the case due to a lack of evidence, the Sao Paulo attorney general’s office said Monday.

The police decision will be sent to prosecutors on Tuesday, who will have 15 days to evaluate the case, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office told AFP.

A final ruling on the case will be made by a judge.

A spokesman for Neymar said he was not able to comment on the police decision. Sao Paulo police are due to hold a news conference on Tuesday.

Neymar has vehemently denied allegations he raped a Brazilian woman in a Paris hotel in May.

The ugly affair, which has dominated headlines and conversations in the soccer-mad country for weeks, overshadowed Brazil’s preparations for the Copa America.

Hosts Brazil went on to win South America’s showcase tournament earlier this month without their biggest player, who was injured in a warm-up friendly before the opening match.

The scandal blew up on June 2 when Neymar published a seven-minute video on Instagram, where he had first been in contact with Najila Trindade, revealing that he had been accused of rape.

In an attempt to defend himself against the allegations, Neymar’s video was accompanied by WhatsApp messages and images of his encounter with Trindade — without her consent, possibly breaking Brazilian law.

– Police questioning –

The drama quickly snowballed. Extracts of a televised interview with Trindade, in which she accused Neymar of “aggression together with rape,” aired just one hour before he was about to enter the pitch for the pre-Copa game between Brazil and Qatar.

Neymar tore his right ankle ligament in the 20th minute, ruling him out of the tournament.

In the following weeks, Neymar was questioned by police over the WhatsApp messages.

He also appeared before police in Sao Paulo, where Trindade had filed her complaint at the end of May.

As the case dragged on, police filed a defamation suit against Trindade — who was dropped by multiple lawyers — after she insinuated the force was corrupt.

“The police are bought, aren’t they? Or am I crazy?” she told television channel SBT last month in response to questions over the police investigation of an alleged theft of a tablet device from her home that contained a short video she claims has conclusive evidence she was assaulted.

Despite the seriousness of the allegations, polls have shown that most Brazilians believe Neymar is innocent.

Controversy has followed the Paris Saint-Germain player, who flew back to France earlier this month.

Neymar, who joined PSG in 2017, has made clear he wants to return to Barcelona.

He has yet to feature during PSG’s pre-season tour in Asia and French media reported he will miss Tuesday’s game against Sydney in China.

Source: AFP

Jailed Ambazonia leader to start hunger strike

30, July 2019

Jailed Ambazonia leader to start hunger strike 0

The detained Ambazonia leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe has said that he will begin a hunger strike by tomorrow if the whereabouts of all Southern Cameroons detainees that were held at the Central prison in Yaoundé are not made public.

After the English speaking regions of Cameroon declared independence and created the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Yaounde declared war on the people of Southern Cameroons and spent millions of US dollars in an operation in Nigeria that saw the arrest of the Ambazonian leader and his top aides in Abuja.

The conflict has so far claimed the lives of some 3000 Southern Cameroonians and approximately 1500 Cameroon government army soldiers. The UN says it has registered some 50000 Ambazonians as refugees in Nigeria and more than half a million are IDPs in French Cameroun.

The Ambazonia leader told our Yaoundé city reporter late yesterday that he will start refusing food to protest the killing of Southern Cameroons detainees and the hundreds more whose location are not known after the riot that rocked the Central prison in Yaoundé.

The Southern Cameroons leader is convinced him and his top aides would not get a fair trial in French Cameroun, but insisted that the French Cameroun must inform international public opinion on the whereabouts of hundreds of Ambazonian political prisoners.

Tensions with French Cameroun are rising and the Southern Cameroons Interim government continues to advocate for a complete separation from La Republique du Cameroun something the Biya Francophone government has said it will not accept.

This is not the first time the Ambazonian leaders are engaging in a Hunger Strike. Cameroon Intelligence Report is reliably informed that sometime on the 15th of January 2018 while they were detained incommunicado in a 3 floors underground detention facility at the Nigeria Defense Intelligence Agency better known by its acronym DIA, Barr Shufai Blaise SEVIDZEM BERINYUY initiated a Hunger Strike action to protest against their continuous detention without charge to court or presentation before a Magistrate within 48 hours as required in criminal legislation worldwide!

The protest action was immediately joined by his brothers of the Nera fame and by the third day the gates were open for them to hold a meeting with a delegation from the UNHCR Abuja office on 18/01/2018 that caused an immediate improvement to their detention conditions given that they were moved from 3rd floor underground where they were in same cells with Boko Haram suspect leadership to second floor where they were together in a larger cell and their clothes given to them and given closer attention.

That however didn’t stop their illegal extradition to Yaounde, la Republique du Cameroun where they’re facing death sentence for alleged heinous crimes related to terrorism and secession from a country they’ve never been legally united to. They were handcuffed, blindfolded and thrown in a Cameroun military cargo carrier with neither seats nor seat belts manned by heavily armed and masked anti terrorist gendarmes called GPIGN ( Groupement Polyvalent de l’Inrervention de ka Gendarmerie Nationale).

By Sama Ernest in Yaounde

Ambazonia: Vice President Yerima says allegations of secret talks with Biya aimed at public provocation

30, July 2019

Ambazonia: Vice President Yerima says allegations of secret talks with Biya aimed at public provocation 0

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government has strongly dismissed claims that Ambazonian leaders were holding secret talks with French Cameroun government representatives in Geneva.

 Vice President Dabney Yerima who has decreed a complete and total lockdown of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia beginning today Tuesday the 30th of July 2019 emphasized that such lies are aimed at inciting Southern Cameroons public opinion and plunging Ambazonia into more turmoil.

Dabney Yerima warned that those Ambazonian front liners who recently travelled to Geneva from the USA and whose acolytes are making such unsubstantiated claims are actually giving the French Cameroun regime and the consortium of CPDM crime syndicates the chance to hatch and advance their plots against the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Comrade Dabney Yerima who is also expected to launch a massive program to raise funds for the struggle in Europe, the US and South Africa noted that the focus is now no Ground Zero and all Southern Cameroons detainees including the injured.

Speaking during a trip to the UK, the Southern Cameroons Vice President expressed regret over the French Cameroun government’s recent crackdown on Ambazonia political prisoners in the Kondengui High Security prison in Yaounde and also in Buea.

Vice President Dabney Yerima has also called on Southern Cameroons groups to look at the issue of Southern Cameroons refugees in Nigeria and in French Cameroun from a humanitarian perspective.

By Chi Prudence Asong in London

Yaounde Military Tribunal: Ambazonia Leaders, Lawyers appeared in “Odeshi” bands

29, July 2019

Yaounde Military Tribunal: Ambazonia Leaders, Lawyers appeared in “Odeshi” bands 0

The Southern Cameroons leaders and their legal team appeared today in the Yaounde Military Tribunal with red “odeshi-like” bands on their wrists and arms in solidarity with Ambazonians killed during the 3 year old war of liberation as well as Tsi Conrad, Mancho Bibixy, Congressman, Tantoh Benji and all the other detainees at the Kondengui Central prison including Buea whose whereabouts are still unknown.

The red bands coupled with the serenity in the court premises that was also exacerbated by the news that Barrister Amungwa Tanyi assaulted recently by French Cameroun gendarmes was still hospitalized, caused a lot of stir and fright such that members of the prosecution sent some of the Southern Cameroons lawyers to plead with detainees and the lawyers to remove the bands.

Barr Shufai

When the matter was called up for hearing Batonier emeritus Eta Besong Jr informed the court that the defense team was in such bad spirit following the attack on Barrister Amungwa by two gendarmes last Saturday. He senior advocate told the court that they couldn’t go ahead with any hearing.

He however intimated that a formal complaint has been filed before the President of Cameroon Bar Association who had in turn reported the case to the French Cameroun Minister of Justice and Keeper of Seals as well as the French Cameroun Minister in charge of the Gendarmerie who had both ordered investigations to be carried out.

Neither the Prosecution nor the Counsel for Civil Party opposed the application for adjournment by the defense and so the matter was adjourned to 05/08 for hearing.

Nigeria: Police on high alert as protesters gathering for Zakzaky release outside court

29, July 2019

Nigeria: Police on high alert as protesters gathering for Zakzaky release outside court 0

Police in Nigeria have tightened security ahead of a bail hearing for imprisoned Muslim cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky, whose supporters are expected to stage protests for his release during the court hearing.

The Kaduna State High Court will on Monday decide whether to grant bail to the cleric, who isin dire need of medical treatment overseas.

The cleric, who has been in prison since December 2015, was reportedly poisoned in prison and requires urgent medical care abroad, according to members of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN).

IMN members regularly take to the streets of the Nigerian capital to call for the release of Sheikh Zakzaky, who has been in detention since 2015. Nigerian forces have used live ammunition against the protesters.

Just days ahead of the court hearing, a Federal High Court in the capital Abuja granted the government permission to label the Islamic movement a “terrorist” organization.

PressTV-Islamic Nigeria group raps court order on ‘terror’ labeling

Police in Kaduna said in a statement on Sunday that they have deployed a security detail to the city in anticipation of protests as a result of the court hearing.

Security forces killed at least 20 members of the movement during protests on Friday, according to a spokesman for the IMN.

Protests have also been underway in recent weeks outside the Nigerian embassy in the British capital, London.

On Monday, Zakzaky’s supporters were staging protests outside the Nigerian embassy in London ahead of his appearance in court.

The London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission, (IHRC), have previously called on the Nigerian government to immediately release the cleric and send him abroad for urgent medical treatment.

The IHRC, which sent a medical team to Nigeria in April to examine the health and overall condition of Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife, has already said the specialist treatment they require can only be fully accessed outside the African country.

PressTV-Nigerian troops kill 20 supporters of Sheikh Zakzaky

Sheikh Zakzaky, who is in his mid-sixties, lost the ability to see using his left eye in a 2015 raid by security forces, which left more than 300 of his followers, and three of his sons dead. His wife also sustained serious injuries.

The cleric was charged in April 2018 with murder, culpable homicide, unlawful assembly, disruption of public peace and other accusations. He has pleaded not guilty, vehemently rejecting all accusations brought up against him by the authorities.

In 2016, Nigeria’s federal high court ordered Zakzaky’s unconditional release from jail following a trial, but the government has so far refused to set him free.

US: Five more lawmakers call for Trump impeachment probe

29, July 2019

US: Five more lawmakers call for Trump impeachment probe 0

Five lawmakers hailing from Washington state have joined the long list of legislators pressing for an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.

The Hill carried the report on Sunday, identifying the quintet as Derek Kilmer, Kim Schrier, Suzan DelBene, and Denny Heck from the House as well as Patty Murray from the Senate.

The representatives all cited a report compiled by former special counsel Robert Mueller on accusations of collaboration between Trump’s election campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election that was won by Trump.

Mueller testified to Congress on Wednesday. He said he would not exonerate Trump from allegation of obstructing justice in the case, although the report failed to directly blame the head of state for such wrongdoing during his electioneering.

PressTV-Mueller report shows Trump committed crimes: Top Dem

Trump touted the hearings as a success, declaring the “phony cloud” cast by the investigation had been lifted and insisted “there was no defense to this ridiculous hoax, this witchhunt.”

The foursome’s support for the impeachment probe brings the total number of House Democrats calling for the proceedings to 103, just 15 shy of a majority of the House Democratic Caucus.

Murray, meanwhile, said in his statement, “As we have learned more about the gravity of the potential threats to our democracy identified in Special Counsel Mueller’s report, it has become clear the House should begin proceedings to determine whether the President’s actions necessitate impeachment.”

Also on Sunday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, conveyed his verbal support for Trump’s impeachment, but withheld an official endorsement.

“My personal view is that [Trump] richly deserves impeachment. He has done many impeachable offenses,” Nadler said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Source: Presstv

Southern Cameroonians are winning the battle for Ambazonia

29, July 2019

Southern Cameroonians are winning the battle for Ambazonia 0

After more than three years of a war that has left half of Southern Cameroons’s population displaced, villages reduced to rubble, and over 3000 killed, the Federal Republic of Ambazonia appears to be a reality.  The war is far from over and any victory may prove pyrrhic given the devastation wrought. Even so, it now seems La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons are going their separate ways. French Cameroun dictator Paul Biya has outlasted nearly all Western leaders of his generation and even beyond but there are signs the Southern Cameroons war will still be fought even after him.

How are Southern Cameroonians surviving? Some pro Yaoundé commentators grew optimistic about the impending collapse of the Ambazonian revolution immediately after the arrest of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides in Abuja, Nigeria. The Biya regime had a massive advantage from the very inception of the Southern Cameroons struggle due to the fact that La Republique du Cameroun had no internal and external opponents to put serious pressure on Biya and his consortium of crime syndicates. Today, the regime’s anti Bamileke stance and the arrest of Prof Maurice Kamto and several other divisions are all signaling that collapse now seem possible.

To be sure, Biya’s survival after the last counterfeit presidential elections was no accident: There were clear domestic and external causes. The regime used cynical and brutal tactics to maintain key backing at home, while on the international front, it had steadfast allies such as the French and the European Union and reluctant and incompetent enemies led by the Francophone diaspora.

Recently, France’s closest allies are walking away from it as it is believed that Paris is supporting the Yaoundé government in its resolve to kill the people of Southern Cameroons. Many EU countries are insisting on Yaoundé calling for an inclusive dialogue that will help normalize things.

But Yaoundé has been indifferent to those calls. Many EU countries have already allied with the United States and Canada on how the Southern Cameroons crisis could be addressed. America’s determination and its ability to mobilize other countries, including some of Cameroons neighbors like Equatorial Guinea, have rattled the regime and its supporters.

Southern Cameroons institutions put in place by President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe is helping Ambazonians withstand the pressures of the French Cameroun war. Notably, the Ambazonia Restoration Forces have remained loyal to the Interim Government. And even the Yaounde sponsored coup by Sako Ikome and Chris Anu against the Ambazonia leader did not get the desired impact.

Without heavy equipment, the Southern Cameroons fighters have inflicted huge casualties and caused some defections deep within the Cameroon government army and the size of the French Cameroun military is shrinking day-by-day.

After the April 6th coup, Biya packed security positions and elite units with tribal loyalists, many of them are members of “essingan” a Beti -Ewondo traditionally sect that persuades top ranking military officers and senior cabinet ministers that Biya was their best route to security and privilege. With age telling on him and poor health, the Southern Cameroons crisis has exposed Biya emptiness and it is abundantly clear the Amba resistance has caused a crack within the essingan sect.

Cameroon army soldiers have also been burning homes and destroying food crops, believing that such tactics will cause the Southern Cameroons population to yield and betray the fighters. This strategy has been in effect for more than two years, but the Southern Cameroons population is very determined. Most southern Cameroonians are for independence and will not settle for anything less.

The Yaoundé government is really frustrated. Its international allies are walking away and this is creating brand new problems even in the North where Boko Haram remains a lethal threat. The withdrawal of American military support in the North has exposed Cameroon’s army soldiers to more attacks from Boko Haram and prompted a new deployment.

As soon as the Ambazonia unrest broke out three years ago, Biya falsely characterized Southern Cameroons as terrorists, rebels and government posters appeared warning of sectarian divisions. Eventually, this did not work. Government officials seem to be seeing the writing on the wall. The government is out of money and the West’s decision to turn the heat on the collapsing Yaoundé government seems to spell the end for a regime that has thrived on corruption and tribalism.

As the oil refinery has gone, the government does not have money to buy and corrupt more people. Some of its fervent supporters are already jumping ship. Many senior government officials are already sending their families abroad as they know that America’s determination to bring change to Cameroon can never be underestimated.

The “river of money” in the Ambazonia Southern Zone has gone dry. CDC, PAMOL and SONARA are all facing problems and these are corporations that have stood the Biya Francophone government in good stead over the last fifty years.

With these corporations facing tough challenges, it is clear that Biya is in real trouble. The government is at its wit’s end. The challenges are only mounting.  Before long, civil servants and the military will not be receiving their salaries. The military, in particular, has stood solidly behind the government during its bad days. Will it still stand with the government now that its coffers are empty? The stress is obvious and for cause. The military might just as well jump ship.

There is genuine Southern Cameroons ideological support for President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe who has often insisted that no Southern Cameroonian citizen is bigger than the revolution. The sacrifice that the people of Southern Cameroons have made has rubbished claims by Yaoundé that the resistance is an externally orchestrated plot.

Another key Biya Francophone ploy was a campaign of intimidation. Southern Cameroonians have destroyed the Biya regime’s wall of fear something that is still a kind of wishful thinking in French Cameroun. Many Southern Cameroonians have bravely risked their lives and many more are joining the armed struggle.

French Cameroun’s attempts to divide, delegitimize, and criminalize the Ambazonia Interim Government has failed and the Ambazonia population is no longer willing to stomach unjustified violence from the Francophone army. The French Cameroun’s concocted Atanga Nji Amba Boys portraying the Ambazonia Restoration Forces as violent, criminals, sectarian has also failed woefully.

The Biya regime is struggling to make its false narrative on the Southern Cameroons situation real. Peaceful demonstrations have been specifically targeted, and thousands of Southern Cameroonians have been detained, facing torture, sexual assault, and humiliation. Over 400 have disappeared in the Kondengui and New Bell prisons, as many as 50,000 have either fled abroad precisely into neighboring Nigeria and became radicalized.

With Paul Biya still in power in French Cameroun and without an inclusive dialogue as advocated by the international community, both Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun will continue to be caught in a turbulence of epic proportions and the stress will continue.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

French Cameroun’s Kondengui Prison is now being emptied by Biya regime’s mass murder campaign

29, July 2019

French Cameroun’s Kondengui Prison is now being emptied by Biya regime’s mass murder campaign 0

The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime is doubling down on executions of Southern Cameroons detainees in the Kondengui High Security prison in Yaoundé following a massive riot staged by the Ambazonians in the facility. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands French Cameroun military judges are presently accelerating the pace they issue life and death sentences.

A senior Francophone army officer who spoke to our Yaounde city reporter on the condition that his full names should not be disclosed out of fear for his family safety hinted that Yaounde was instituting a campaign to clear the decks of Southern Cameroons detainees in Douala New Bell prison, Baffoussam and in Kondengui. He revealed that Southern Cameroons prisoners of war are being transferred from jails in Buea and Bamenda to join death-row detainees in Yaounde and Douala.

We gathered from other prison administrators that at least one section of the Kondengui prison that harbored Ambazonian detainees is almost entirely empty. Some of the former detainees en route to Douala and Yaounde from Bamenda escaped that fate only after relatives paid hundreds of thousands of FCFA to secure their freedom.

A Roman Catholic priest in Buea described overhearing conversations between Buea prisons guards relating to the transfer of Southern Cameroons detainees to be killed. Human Rights groups say the rate of death sentences on Southern Cameroonians has sped up over the past three years as the attitudes of Francophone court officials hardened.

There is no room for leniency as almost every Southern Cameroons detainee will now face the death penalty. Many Ambazonian prisoners have died of malnutrition, medical neglect or physical abuse. The so-called Prime Minister Dion Ngute government did not respond to requests for comment for this report. The Francophone dominated Biya government has never acknowledged the execution of prisoners or released figures of Southern Cameroons detainees.  No independent figures are available even from the Ambazonian Interim Government now led by Vice President Dabney Yerima.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

At 10th Anniversary Mass: Bishop Nkea says Father Agbaw-Ebai loves the Church with his whole heart and he’s is not just a Catholic priest but he is a true son of the Church

28, July 2019

At 10th Anniversary Mass: Bishop Nkea says Father Agbaw-Ebai loves the Church with his whole heart and he’s is not just a Catholic priest but he is a true son of the Church 0

HOMILY AT THE MASS OF THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY TO THE PRIESTHOOD OF REV. FR. MAURICE AGBAW-EBAI

BOSTON, USA, 28TH JULY, 2019

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Today is a very important day in the life of Rev. Fr. Maurice Agbaw Ebai, Priest of the Diocese of Mamfe, Cameroon and Pastor of St. Anne’s Parish in the Archdiocese of Boston, United States of America. On this day, we have all joined to render thanks to Almighty God, who ten years ago, called Fr. Maurice to make a complete and irreversible donation of his entire life to the service of and to pour out his life as a libation for the redemption of souls. On this day, ten years ago, Fr. Maurice died with Christ on his altar of sacrifice, and after his ordination, he could say with St. Paul, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Jesus Christ his Son, and to the Church that is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. On this day, ten years ago, Fr. Maurice prostrated himself before God and the Entire Church gathered in prayer, to empty himself of himself

My dear people of God, gathered here with Fr. Maurice Agbaw-Ebai to celebrate his tenth anniversary, I welcome you all to this great day in the life of this priest and I want to apologize  that I could not stay in America long enough to be present at this occasion which I had agreed to preside over and preach. But since urgent duties recalled me home to the Diocese of Mamfe and the Church in Cameroon, I decided to ask Fr. Dieudonne Akawung, the Diocesan Finance Administrator to come to Boston and to preach this homily on my behalf which I had written to preach myself. I know that Fr. Dieudonne will deliver the homily well on my behalf, but the only difference is that he will be delivering the homily without a miter on his head. Some people in Mamfe had asked me if I was going all the way to the United States to celebrate only a tenth anniversary, the what would I do if it were a silver Jubilee? My answer to them was a quotation from the Psalmist who said “One day in his house is better than a thousand elsewhere” and again, the same Psalmist who said in another instance that “a thousand years for God is like a day just come and gone”(Ps.90:4). To be a priest even for one day only, brings a lot of glory and honour to name of Jesus Christ who is the Supreme High Priest of the New Covenant. If after nine years of seminary formation, a priest had the chance to celebrate only one Mass and died, he would have fulfilled the reason for his ordination, because his first Mass and  the Mass of his  golden Jubilee in the priesthood is one continuous sacrifice, during which he re-enacts in an un-bloody way, the bloody sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ on the Cross for the salvation of the world. Therefore, this celebration is not about Fr. Maurice, it is about glory and honour to the Name of Jesus Christ whom he has been so blessed to serve with devotion and loyalty all these ten years.

However, while we give honour and glory to God, we must remember the quote from St. Augustine who said “Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not”. It is in this light I wish to join you all and say to Fr. Maurice, a big Congratulations on your tenth anniversary. Within these ten years, God has used your hands to dispense his blessings to thousands of people, God has used your mouth and your voice to bring his Good News and consolation to thousands of Christ’s Faithful. Within these ten years, God has used you to bring absolution and forgive the sins of thousands of people everywhere in the confessionals. Within these ten years, many have been born through you in the waters of baptism, and above all everyday, you have stood in the place of Christ to celebrate the Eucharist and raise the cup of salvation on behalf of the people of God entrusted to your care. Fr. Maurice and many of us will now understand better what St. Augustine meant when he said “without us, God will not”. Thank you Father Maurice for making yourself an instrument in the hands of God for all these years so that God’s graces may come down from heaven and rest on his people on earth. Through you, heaven is wedded to earth and man is reconciled with God. For this, we can only say “Glory be to God on high, and congratulations to you, man of goodwill.”

In the Letter to the Hebrews, it is stated that every high priest has been taken out of mankind, and is appointed to act for men in their relations with God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins… No one takes this honour on himself, but each one is called by God as Aaron was (Heb. 5:1-4).

The priesthood thus is a gift and at the same time, it is a mystery. It is a gift in the sense that it is freely given by God. That is why Christ says in John 15:16 that you did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last.

It is a mystery because it is something that can never be understood. How can a human being command God to come into bread? How can human being touch water and it becomes holy? How can a human being throw a bit of water on your head and original sin is taken away? How can a human being wave his hands in the air and impart the blessing of God? How can a human being say “I absolve you” and sin is taken away? This remains a mystery, more or less like the Trinity, the most ancient of all mysteries. Even the priest who carries the priesthood in him does not fully understand it. He simply exercises this ministry in faith, knowing that the Lord who called him and whom he is serving, will not let him down.

The priest is a man of God and he  never acts in his name but in the name of the one who sent him. That is why every time the priest carries out   liturgical function, he does so in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He never does this in his own personal name.

There are two things I would like  you people to understand today about priests on this day on the tenth anniversary celebration of Fr. Maurice .

The first is that Priests called by God are human and sinners like all other people. That is why St. Paul Says in 2Cor. 4:7; that we are only earthenware jars that hold this treasure, to make it clear that such an overwhelming power comes from God and not from us. Priests fall down in different ways from time to time. The twelve Apostles called on Holy Thursday to be priests were men, with faults and failings. Fr. Columba, an Irish Priest said in one of his homilies  that The first Pope, St. Peter was rash and bad tempered. He also denied Christ in His hour of need. St. Mathew was a swindler who co-operated with his country’s enemies. And poor St. Thomas wasn’t too sure about what he believed or where he stood. If God only relied on the virtuous and the perfect, he would have very few (or no) priests. I for one standing here would not even come any where near the altar.

In this regard, I want to say that most often Christians see the man in the priest and not the priest in the man. Many people only look at the man in the priest, and some people may not even believe in the miraculous work of God through the priest. But when we look at the priest in the man, we transcend his own petty weaknesses and see the grace of God at work in us through the instrumentality of human beings. It is in this connection that the church teaches us about the principle of ex opereoperato to mean that the efficacy of the sacrament does not depend on the worthiness of the priest. He is a simple instrument that has to struggle for his own salvation in fear and trembling.

The second thing I want you to understand about priests is that their life is not their own. They have offered it to the church and they do everything according to the mind of the Church. They must conform therefore not to the standards set by men but to the standards set by God and the Church. These standards come out in the way they minister to their people. Before you think of the one wrong of a priest, remember the thousand good things he does for his flock daily. Satan exists in the community to ruin it. The priest is a good and struggling man. His goodness is and should not only be seen when de dies. Always be ready to appreciate what a priest does for you, never take it for granted.

From the day Fr. Maurice Agbaw-Ebai was ordained a priest in the Diocese of Mamfe, he has done his work to the best of his ability, and like his Bishop, I want to use this chance to thank him for the priest that he has been. The real seminary for the priest is the Ministry, and thus we rise and fall in our attempt to give our all to God. The one thing I know for certain about this priest, all his human weaknesses notwithstanding, is that he loves the church with his whole heart. He is not just a Catholic priest but he is a true son of the Church and he is ready to defend the doctrine of the Church with such passion that could be seen only in the likes of St. Irenaeus, St. Athanasius and his mentor in the faith, Pope Benedict XVI. I encourage him on this day that his faith may never fail, so that he may always remain a source of strength to his brothers and sisters in Christ. I invite all of you in this Church today to pray in a very special way for our celebrant, that he may remain faithful to Christ, loyal to the Church, fervent in prayer and constant in love for the Christians he serves in the Archdiocese of Boston.

I wish each and everyone of you a very happy celebration, and once again to Fr. Maurice, Happy tenth Anniversary and God bless you all.

+Andrew NKEA,

Bishop of Mamfe.

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