A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging three Maryland men on federal charges related to a scheme to receive more than $2.7 million in unemployment benefits.

The three men charged were 34-year-old Gladstone Njokem of Hyattsville, 32-year-old Martin Tabe of Bowie and 31-year-old Sylvester Atekwane of Hyattsville.

According to the 13-count indictment, from February 2020 through February 2021, Njokem, Tabe, Atekwane along with others impersonated victims in order to submit fraudulent UI claims.  To do this, the defendants obtained the personally identifiable information (PII) of victims. The defendants shared the PII amongst themselves and with others and used the victims’ PII to submit fraudulent applications for UI benefits in Maryland, Michigan, and Tennessee.

The applications contained false information like contact information, addresses, work availability and that they were newly unemployed. They used false physical addresses for the applications so that any money paid to them by the state would go to them and not the victims.

The indictment also details that once the defendants received the unemployment debit cards, they made cash withdrawals and other transactions throughout Maryland.

The indictment says that due to the conspiracy, Njokem, Tabe, Atekwane, and others caused at least 600 fraudulent UI claims to be submitted in Maryland, Michigan, Tennessee, and at least sixteen other states, resulting in more than 2.7 million dollars in actual losses.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and for each of the nine counts of wire fraud.

The defendants each also face a mandatory sentence of two years in federal prison, consecutive to any other sentence imposed, for aggravated identity theft.

Source: Baltimore.cbslocal

A senior aide to the Southern Cameroons Vice President Dr Patrick Ayuk has urged the Ambazonia diaspora to continue to invest in the big rubbergun project to enable Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces catch the French Cameroun military off guard.

“You are advised to continue to support the big rubbergun project that will equip our restoration forces with advanced and surprising capabilities to confront the French Cameroun enemy,” the Southern Cameroons front liner said on Monday.

The Big Rubbergun scheme is currently serving as Southern Cameroons topmost self defense operation, tasked with raising funds, devising, coordinating, and overseeing Ambazonia Restoration Forces operational activities in Ground Zero.

Dr Patrick Ayuk made the remarks at an important meeting grouping Southern Cameroonians in the Republic of South Africa. Other ranking officials from the Southern Cameroons Interim Government and County Coordinators were in attendance at the meeting.

Dr Patrick Ayuk, meanwhile, voiced delight over Comrade Dabney Yerima’s performance as Vice President of the Interim Government.

He expressed gratitude towards the Vice President for the quality of his style of management and the premium state of interaction with the Ambazonian people both at home and in the diaspora.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files

At least 26 Cameroon government soldiers were injured, 10 of them critically, when their military vehicle overturned on a steepy road on Saturday in Northwest region, police said.

The accident temporarily blocked traffic in Bamenda, chief city of the region where the tragedy occurred as emergency crews worked to extricate the soldiers from a valley where the vehicle fell.

Witnesses said, it appeared a wheel came off the vehicle as it descended the road.

The soldiers were on the way to reinforce security in parts of the region where Ambazonia Restoration fighters were operating actively, according to army sources.

The Cameroon army is intensifying military operations in the region following repeated raids by Amba fighters who want to create an independent nation in the two Anglophone regions of the Central African nation.

Source: Xinhuanet

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima has warned the French Cameroun invading army that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and its self defense forces would face them with more defeats if they kept up their aggression against it.

“Retaliatory killings against the invading French Cameroun military will continue until Southern Cameroons complete liberation,” Yerima said on Saturday.

The Ambazonian Vice President was reacting to major self defense victories recorded by Amba fighters recently in both the Northern and the Southern zones. Yerima reportedly shared a telephone conversation with the Ambazonian Chief of Intelligence in Ground Zero who has been jointly leading Southern Cameroons defensive operations against the French Cameroun invasion.

Vice President Dabney Yerima said the Southern Cameroons war was an unjust act by all political, moral, and humanitarian standards and vowed that the people of Southern Cameroons would come out victorious against the criminal gangs in Yaoundé who had sought to reach their goals in the war over just weeks or months.

The 88-year-old President Paul Biya ordered the war to keep British Southern Cameroonians under French Cameroun control and to continue to plunder its resources.

Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces have been delivering a decisive response to the French Cameroun aggressors with their constant retaliatory ambush attacks, continuously preventing the invading Francophone military from realizing any of its objectives.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Ambazonia Restoration Forces killed at least 15 Cameroon government army soldiers after they ambushed their convoy in the North West region, the army confirmed on Friday.

Earlier reports from sources said nine soldiers were killed in the attack but an official security report from the army in the region stated that the death toll was 15.

According to the army, Amba fighters ambushed and attacked the convoy that was transporting members of Cameroon elite force, Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), on Thursday in Bamessing, a locality in the region.

The armoured cars transporting the soldiers were shattered with explosive devices.

Early on Friday, Marines of Bambalang, a Southern Cameroons group in the region claimed responsibility for the ambush and shared gruesome images of the attack on social media.

The attack was the deadliest attack in the region since July last year, according to security reports.

Violence erupted in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest in 2017 after the leader of the Ambazonian nation President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe declared “independence” of the two regions.

Source: Xinhuanet with additional editing

Several prominent notables and title holders of various Southern Cameroons tribal extractions have reportedly held a secret meeting in Muea in Fako County saying they unanimously object to the presence of Francophone army soldiers in Southern Cameroons territory and stressing that they will henceforth collaboratively work with the Ambazonia Interim Government to expel troops loyal to the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered from informed sources that during the Muea meeting that held recently, the Southern Cameroons traditional rulers and notables opined that there was an urgent need for the two Cameroons to go back to Foumban and they noted that any further delay will push both the South West Chiefs and the North West Fons to join forces with the Ambazonia Interim Government to confront the failed regime in Yaoundé.

The Southern Cameroons notables called on the 88-year-old Biya to pull out his Beti Ewondo army soldiers from Southern Cameroons soil, and said the people of British Southern Cameroons are suffering as a result of Francophone military presence in Southern Cameroons.

The Southern Cameroons traditional leaders agreed to open a hot line with the Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima to ensure a peaceful end to the conflict and to work towards the return of Southern Cameroons refugees.

They also reaffirmed their loyalty to the Common Law and the Anglo-Saxon heritage.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files

At least 10 Cameroon government soldiers were killed Thursday in the northwest region in a new attack by Ambazonia Restoration Forces, authorities reported.

Southern Cameroons Self Defense fighters attacked an army convoy on the road between Bamessing and Sabga in the Ndop district of the North West region, the Francophone Governor Adolphe Lele Lafrique said in a conversation with state radio and television CRTV.

“The attack took place on Thursday evening,” the Francophone governor said.

The Governor revealed that “The elements of the army led by two armoured vehicles were targeted by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and rocket launchers.”

According to Cameroon government military sources, the forces attacked were elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR, an elite unit of the Cameroonian army).

According to the official report, ten soldiers were killed by Ambazonia Restoration Forces and two army armoured vehicles were destroyed. The Amba fighters took with them the weapons and ammunition of the soldiers killed.

Thursday’s attack comes four days after an ambush that killed five soldiers in Kumbo.

By Fon Lawrence

Gunmen have released five teachers of public schools and five education officials who were kidnapped in Ngo-Ketunjia, a division in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone region of Northwest, officials and security sources said on Wednesday.

The officials and the teachers were abducted on Tuesday while they were attending a meeting to plan on the new academic year, according to local authorities.

No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction but separatist fighters had threatened to disrupt schools in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions where they have been clashing with government forces since 2017 in a bid to create an independent nation in the regions.

Source: Xinhuanet