19, October 2018

Cameroon’s Presidential Poll: The Constitutional Council was just a formality ⁰

It is gradually emerging that the hearings at the Constitutional Council were simply part of a scheme designed by the ruling CPDM crime syndicate do deceive the population and the international community.

Even before the hearings wound up, an agenda for the proclamation of results had been designed and guests invited for the event had received their invitations about three days ago.

It should be recalled that all the submissions and pleas of the opposition had been rejected and from there, it was clear that the Constitutional Council was determined to declare Paul Biya the winner of the election, though he had not campaigned and so many irregularities had been pointed out by lawyers and eyewitnesses.

Meanwhile Cameroon Concord News Group has gotten intelligence that the government of Cameroon will soon be dealing with massive post-election demonstrations. The demonstrations are being planned for Monday, October 22 and will last for weeks and months.

“The election results have already been approved by the Constitutional Council and all the drama in the name of hearings is just designed to calm down tempers and deceive the international community” noted a source at the Presidency of the Republic.

The source added that Mr. Biya will be declared a winner on Sunday and there are already plans to deploy troops and police in major cities across the country. He stressed that a dusk to dawn curfew could be declared in many cities, including Yaounde where it is held that the opposition has a huge following.

As a prelude to what will happen, the government has been deploying troops at strategic locations in Yaounde and Douala, especially in neighborhoods that are mostly inhabited by Bamilekes and Anglophones. This action has been followed by random arrests to frighten any young men who have plans to take to the streets in the coming days.

The beleaguered government has also trained many spies who are serving as its eyes and ears among the population and these agents are spreading word that ordinary citizens should not express their views as they could be arrested.

By Sama Ernest and Kingsley Betek

19, October 2018

Southern Cameroons War: Fru Ndi’s home torched ⁰

Anglophone separatists have torched the home of Cameroon’s veteran opposition leader and kidnapped his sister, his lawyers said on Thursday.

The two incidents, which took place Wednesday, targeted Ni John Fru Ndi who heads the Social Democratic Front and comes from Cameroon’s troubled anglophone west.

Separatists “burnt (Fru Ndi’s) house” in the North-West, said lawyer Francis Sama, referring to one of Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions which have been hit by almost daily unrest that has left at least 400 dead this year.

“They kidnapped his younger sister,” he said at a hearing before the Constitutional Court, without giving further detail on either incident.

His remarks were made during a hearing at which three opposition candidates asked for the contested October 7 presidential election be annulled on grounds of massive fraud.

Fru Ndi has spent the past quarter of a century in opposition as head of SDF which he founded in 1990.

But although he ran for the presidency three times, Fru Ndi stood aside this time, letting his deputy Joshua Osih join the race against President Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years.

Although Fru Ndi has long opposed Biya’s rule, the separatists see him as a “traitor” because he is in favour of returning to a federalist solution in Cameroon, while they are fighting for the creation of an independent anglophone state, Sama said.

Yaounde is firmly opposed to any return to federalism.

– Cancel the vote –

Separatist activists had called for a boycott of the election, but SDF decided to run.

In a separate incident, the SDF said Fru Ndi’s driver had been shot at by the security forces after dropping the party leader home at the weekend. Without giving further details, they said he was “out of danger”.

The political crisis in the English-speaking west of this Francophone country erupted in 2016 and deteriorated into an armed separatist uprising last year which prompted a retaliatory crackdown by the security forces.

Following the election, SDF’s Osih asked the court to scrap the ballot because “there was no presidential election” in the English-speaking regions where voting was disrupted and turnout was below five percent, the ICG think tank said.

Two other opposition candidates also joined the petition — Maurice Kamto of the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon and Cabral Libii, a TV news analyst and at 38, the election’s youngest candidate.

Libii’s request was dismissed as inadmissible, but the court has yet to respond to the other two petitions.

Source: AFP

19, October 2018

French President Macron says Post-Brexit visas for Brits is fake news ⁰

Visas for visitors from Britain after Brexit? “Fake news!” insisted President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, scoffing at the idea that France would ever impose such a demand on its neighbour.

“Brexit has consequences but.. we will not start (requiring) visas for UK people if there’s no deal,” he said at the end of a Brussels summit at which EU leaders made little progress in breaking the deadlock in talks.

“It is fake news, as other leaders would say!” he told reporters, speaking in English.

Taking precautions in the event that Britain and the European Union part ways without a deal “is just our responsibility”, Macron said.

“I want to reassure everybody about the day after,” he said. “I don’t want to create panic.”

“The day after, in case of a no-deal, everything will be organised with due processes, for normal life,” he said.

But there would have to be new regulations in place, he said, without giving further details.

“You will have flights, boats and people circulating and people making business with new rules, but this is precisely the only way to have a day after — with new regulation.”

“It is not good way to proceed by saying it would be a disaster in case of no deal… But in case of no deal, our responsibility is to be sure that the life of our people will not be (too) impacted.”

Earlier this month, the French government unveiled draft legislation aimed at setting out preparations for a possible no-deal Brexit which would cover British citizens living in France and French nationals in Britain.

Paris is seeking a “reciprocal” arrangement whereby both countries would treat each others’ expat citizens equally.

(AFP)

19, October 2018

Constitutional Council rejects Kamto, Osih petitions: Biya “victory” expected ⁰

Cameroon’s Constitutional Council on Thursday threw out the remaining two poll petitions that it had admitted from a pool of 18 seeking partial or total cancellation of the October 7 presidential elections.

The two were filed by main opposition Social Democratic Front, SDF and the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CRM, led by ex-Biya appointee, Maurice Kamto. Osih had decried what he described as a state of apartheid in English-speaking regions, where most people could not cast votes due to insecurity.

The decision said to be a unanimous one by the judicial body paves the way for the declaration of results in a poll largely expected to hand incumbent Paul Biya a new seven-year term.

The opposition parties had alleged widespread irregularities insecurity and low turnout especially in restive Anglophone regions but the court held that it was not enough bases to warrant their demands.

The ruling CPDM and elections body, ELECAM, strongly defended the conduct of the polls stressing that the process had been free, fair and democratic.

Source: Africa News

19, October 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Biya regime has committed 4769 serious human rights violation ⁰

Cameroon Concord News Group with the support of dozens of Roman Catholic clergies and Pentecostal Church leaders registered 4769 cases of serious human rights violations in Southern Cameroons as the ruling Biya regime relentlessly continues with its war against separatists and the civilian populations in the English speaking regions of the country now known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The Ambazonia Interim Government based in the USA announced recently that French Cameroun regime forces have killed approximately 4000 Southern Cameroonians including women and children throughout the past year and several hundreds have been arrested during raids on Ambazonian towns and villages.

Correspondingly, there has been an increase in the number of those killed and arrested recently despite the fact that the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church including domestic human rights organizations have condemned the killings currently going on in Southern Cameroons, and called for inclusive dialogue. Francophone soldiers and security agents stormed Southern Cameroonian homes both in Ambazonia territory and Anglophone neighborhoods in Yaounde, the nation’s capital in pursuit of imaginary separatists’ fighters.

Scores of Southern Cameroonians have suffered injuries as a result of excessive use of force by troops and gendarmerie officers loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaounde. Parliamentarians of the so-called main opposition party, the SDF pretending to speak for Southern Cameroonians have instead been collecting their salaries, car allowances and parliamentary grants from the Yaounde regime.

The numbers of French Cameroun military atrocities highlighted by journalists of the Cameroon Concord News Group and the leadership of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government do not include other Biya regime crimes such as forced disappearances, torture and arbitrary sentences, which have occurred only after Southern Cameroonians exercised their rights to the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

The Biya regime continues to tighten its grip on Southern Cameroons figures, and prosecutes Ambazonia activists and journalists such as Bibixy Mancho and Dzenyagha Thomas Awah and the Interim President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Julius Tabe. Biya is making use of law and regulations introduced to protect Cameroon against Boko Haram terrorism, in order to punish Southern Cameroons protesters through unfair proceedings and prosecutions.

By Chi Prudence Asong

19, October 2018

Trump says it ‘certainly looks’ like Khashoggi is dead ⁰

US President Donald Trump says he believes dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead, and that the consequences should be severe for those who carried out the assassination.

In an interview with reporters from The New York Times in the White House on Thursday, Trump stopped short of saying Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s murder, but he acknowledged that the allegations of the Saudi involvement in the atrocity had created a serious foreign policy crisis for his presidency.

“This one has caught the imagination of the world, unfortunately,” Trump told the reporters. “It’s not a positive. Not a positive.”

“Unless the miracle of all miracles happens, I would acknowledge that he’s dead,” Trump said. “That’s based on everything — intelligence coming from every side.”

A short time later, Trump told reporters at Andrews Air Force Base when asked if Khashoggi was dead, “It certainly looks that way to me. It’s very sad.”

Khashoggi, who was also a US green card holder, entered the Saudi mission on October 2 in order to obtain the necessary paperwork for marrying his fiancée. That was the last time he was seen.

According to The Washington Post, to which Khashoggi was a contributor, US intelligence intercepts already prove that he was killed and dismembered by Saudi agents in a hit job directly ordered by bin Salman.

Saudi may blame intelligence official for murder

The Saudi rulers are weighing blaming a top intelligence official close to the crown prince for the assassination, three people with knowledge of the Saudi plan said Thursday, according to The New York Times.

The blame will be assigned to General Ahmed al-Assiri, a high-ranking adviser to the crown prince, but American intelligence agencies are increasingly convinced that bin Salman was behind Khashoggi’s murder.

Turkish officials say they are in possession of audio and video recordings that prove the murder and incriminate Saudi diplomats.

First leaked details of the audio recordings picture a gruesome scene where Khashoggi is tortured, killed and dismembered by a Saudi assassination squad in cold blood.

On Wednesday, former CIA Director John Brennan said the United States government is working with Saudi Arabia to “concoct a story” about the fate of Khashoggi.

Speaking to MSNBC, Brennan said the Saudi Crown Prince and the White House knew what happened to Khashoggi.

“It also seems now we’re in this surreal and morally horrific situation in which the White House and the Saudis seem to be trying to sort of figure out what story they can come up with that they can both have plausibility for Mohammad bin Salman,” said Brennan.

The former spymaster said Washington and Riyadh might be looking for scapegoats inside Saudi Arabia but no matter what they do to make it look like MBS had nothing to do with the incident, their story “is going to fall apart.”

Brennan also called on the CIA and other US intelligence agencies to hand in their evidence to Congress so that lawmakers could scrutinize the White House over its role in the alleged cover-up.

Source: Presstv

19, October 2018

Cameroon Concord News journalist escapes to Canada ⁰

After receiving many death threats from unknown persons due to her reporting of the Southern Cameroons crisis, Cameroon Concord News Group reporter, who could not be reached for a week, has finally reached Canada where she hopes to settle.

Irene Nanyongo has played a significant role in exposing some of the atrocities committed by army soldiers in the two English-speaking regions of the country. Irene Nanyongo braved very many challenges just to tell the story of many men and women who did not have a voice.

With other reporters of the Group, Irene Nanyongo helped to put the Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report among Southern Cameroon’s most read news platforms. Though just arriving in Canada, Irene Nanyongo has promised to continue contributing to the development and growth of the Cameroon Concord News Group brand.

Thank you Irene for your dedication and professionalism. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with you.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, Group Chairman.

18, October 2018

Mamfe Election Day attack was attempt to kill Chief Tabetando and Minister Mengot ⁰

Senator Tabetando, Minister Victor Mengot and CPDM Prof. Etchu George, escaped an apparent assassination attempt when Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces protecting the Manyu County attacked their convoy as it left GRA Mamfe on October 7, Cameroon government officials said.

The Manyu CPDM barons were caught by surprise and forced to run for cover at the residence of the Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu. In an impassioned narration of the events, the Francophone SDO noted that Ambazonian fighters attempted to kill him and the Manyu CPDM leaders.

CPDM business tycoon, Enow Bate, popularly known as Bescam, told friends and family that Cameroon government security officers ordered them to lie on the floor for more than 12 hours. Cameroon Intelligence Report correspondent in Mamfe said the incident took place shortly after 7: a.m. as the Manyu CPDM leaders were heading to stage a voting process in front of CRTV cameras at the Women’s Home in Mamfe.

The visibly shaken Manyu CPDM Senator has never been heard from again since he left his home constituency. Troops loyal to the Biya regime escorted Senator Tabetando and Minister Mengot out of Mamfe.

The Manyu CPDM leaders have all taken refuge in Yaoundé and are still supporting the deeply unpopular leader, 85 years-old President Biya, who is currently rigging his way to a new term in office, in a vote decried by dozens of African nations, including the European Union.

A well-placed Manyu CPDM source said the attempted assassination targeted not only Chief Tabetando and Minister Mengot, but rather the Manyu CPDM’s entire high command, including the SDO. “We are in the midst of a wave of civil war in Cameroon,” noted a local militant of the ruling party. The ruling CPDM party has been banned by the Interim Government of Southern Cameroons and designated as a terrorist organization.

By Asu Vera Eyere

18, October 2018

Europe: Banks used tax schemes to drain up to €55 billion from treasuries ⁰

Two closely-related tax schemes have helped banks and investors avoid tax or even siphon cash directly out of European treasuries totalling billions more than previously thought, an investigation by 19 media revealed Thursday.

So-called “cum-ex” and “cum-cum” deals — complex stock transactions around the days when companies pay out dividends — have cost taxpayers as much as 55 billion euros ($63 billion) in lost revenue or outright fraud since 2001.

The schemes were first uncovered in Germany in 2012.

But beyond Europe’s largest economy, Thursday’s investigation found evidence of the practices in France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Finland, Norway and Switzerland.

Accounting for the bulk of the total at 46 billion euros, technically legal “cum-cum” tax avoidance exploits varying treatment of domestic and foreign shareholders.

Foreign investors holding shares in a company temporarily sell the stock to a bank based in the same country as the firm ahead of the day dividend gets paid out.

This allows them to escape higher taxes on the dividend charged to shareholders from abroad, before buying back their holdings quickly afterwards.

Such deals deprived Germany of 24.6 billion euros in tax revenue, France 17 billion and Italy 4.5 billion, according to the investigation led by investigative journalism website Correctiv with big-name outlets like German public broadcaster ARD and French newspaper Le Monde.

Criminal investigations

Meanwhile, clearly fraudulent “cum-ex” deals draw in more parties in a complex dance around the taxman.

Reportedly conceived by well-known German lawyer Hanno Berger, the cum-ex method relies on several investors buying and selling shares in a company amongst themselves around the day when the firm pays out its dividend.

The stock changes hands so quickly that the tax authorities are unable to identify who is the true owner.

Working together, the investors can claim multiple rebates for tax paid on the dividend and share out the profits amongst themselves — with the treasury footing the bill.

This practice cost Germany 7.2 billion euros, Denmark 1.7 billion and Belgium 201 million, the investigation found.

Since 2012 six criminal investigations have been opened in Germany, including against tax lawyer Berger and several stock market traders.

Norway’s tax authority told AFP that it had uncovered a fraud worth 580,000 crowns ($70,533 or 61,304 euros) in 2013 and blocked several later attempts after a warning from Denmark.

The country has since strengthened its surveillance, it added.

Meanwhile Danish prosecutors have been studying tax practices around dividends since 2015 and are examining “whether there is a basis for criminal proceedings against people or companies involved,” spokesman Simon Gosvig said.

Pierre Moscovici, European Commissioner for economic and financial affairs, tweeted in response to the investigation that European tax authorities should share more information and improve transparency.

“If the fraudsters’ imagination is limitless, my determination is as well!” he wrote.

(AFP)

18, October 2018

“Biya will be declared winner on Sunday and there are plans to deploy troops in major cities across Cameroon” ⁰

The government of Cameroon will soon be dealing with massive post-election demonstrations. The demonstrations are being planned for Sunday, October 22 and will last for weeks and months as an inside government source has informed Cameroon Concord News Group that the election results have already been approved by the Constitutional Council and all the drama in the name of hearings is just designed to calm down tempers and deceive the international community.

The source adds that Mr. Biya will be declared a winner on Sunday and there are plans to deploy troops and police in major cities across the country. He stressed that a dusk to dawn curfew could be declared in many cities, including Yaounde where it is held that the opposition has a huge following.

“The government has created social media loops, another name for word of mouth transmission of information that discourages citizens from expressing themselves freely,” the source said.

In recent days, many government agents have been trying to dissuade young Bamileke businessmen from supporting the massive strikes and demonstrations that are in the offing on the grounds that they would be the losers as they own lots of business ventures across the country.

But their stories to dissuade the population are clearly falling on deaf ears. Cameroonians want real democracy in their country and they know that Mr. Biya is not the winner of the poll and that he is using fake institutions to extend his stay in power.

They want to get him out so that their country can make huge strides forward. Since taking over power in 1982, Mr. Biya has not posted any impressive economic and political results and has rigged every election to stay in power. The people are tired and they want to stage a revolution that will root him and his cohort of embezzlers out of power so as to give the country a new lease on life.

Meanwhile, the hearings at the Constitutional Council have continued today. The Constitutional Council president confirmed that unsigned results reports for 32 polling stations would not be cancelled and that these reports would hand Mr. Biya 1.3 million votes and certainly the victory he is looking for.

Over the last two weeks, the nation’s focus has been on Yaoundé following the holding of presidential elections wherein the incumbent, Paul Biya, is being suspected to have lost woefully. The suspected winner, Prof. Maurice Kamto, had declared that he had won; a day after polling and his announcement has sparked not just hope among his supporters, but fear within the ruling party.

Over the last two days, there have been hearings on post-election fraud, with the ruling party being the prime suspect. The hearings have attracted national and international attention, as Prof. Kamto’s legal team exposes the ruling party’s rigging strategy and tactics.

The rigging involved the Far North, Northwest, Southwest and South regions where opposition returning officers were chased away by ruling party officials. In some ridings, ruling party officials signed on behalf of the opposition officials and in some cases the figures simply did not add up.

In the northwest and southwest regions where a violent and vicious war has been going on, soldiers had to vote as many times as they wanted on behalf of the ruling party as the violence had driven the population out of the regions. But from every indication, things seem to be looking up after two weeks of massive killings in the two English-speaking regions.

This has made many analysts to think that the situation might be improving, especially as many internally displaced people who had fled to East Cameroon are now returning to the English-speaking regions, as many of them suspect that if the elections are released in favor of the incumbent, there could be violence or even a civil war in East Cameroon. Over the last two days, two caches of weapons have been found in Foumban and Bangante, two major cities in Prof. Kamto’s region of origin.

The fear of a civil war is all the more real as Prof. Kamto yesterday reiterated before the Constitutional Council that he was the winner of the October 7 poll and that the Constitutional Council should do the right thing to ensure the people’s will was respected to ensure the country is spared the type of Chaos that has been playing out in Southern Cameroons.

But the situation in Yaounde does not seem to be of any concern or interest to Southern Cameroonian fighters who hold that the elections are simply a distraction. They also hold that once the situation deteriorates, they will step up attacks against the forces of occupation and they will do everything to protect their territory by securing Southern Cameroonian borders.

According to an audio message sent to the Cameroon Concord News Group, Southern Cameroonian fighters are simply working hard to make their impact felt during this period of confusion in the country.

“We have seen that some forces of occupation are being withdrawn from our territory to help keep peace in their own country. We are aware that trouble is brewing in the neighboring country. We will not let that distract us,” the audio message said.

The speaker in the tape further adds that “we will do everything in our power to remain focused. We would not allow the enemy to drag us into his problems. We will be watching the enemy from a distance, as he proves to the world that he is incapable of ensuring peace in his country.”

“We are using this opportunity to urge our citizens to return home and to support the fighters to flush out the forces of occupation. We still have unfinished business and we have to turn the heat on the enemy,” the message underscores.

“We are happy to see them fight each other as this will weaken their grip on our territory. We are urging our citizens to steer clear of the situation in East Cameroon as it does not concern them,” the message concludes. Prof. Kamto has reassured Southern Cameroonians the once declared the winner of the presidential poll, he will engage in sincere and inclusive dialogue.

But his message does not seem to be music to many Southern Cameroonian ears, as many citizens from this region have made up their minds to walk a different path, though they support him in his fight to bring genuine democracy to his country.

Cameroon is certain to face some chaotic situations in the days ahead. The international community should help Cameroonians to bring genuine democracy to their country. Now is the time. If this does not happen the instability in Cameroon might destabilize the entire region.

By Kingsley Betek and Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sama Ernest