Friday, May 29, 2009
By Kini Nsom
The Examining Mfoundi High Court Magistrate has urged the Presidency of the
Republic to lift the immunity of the Cameroonian High Commissioner to the
Republic of South Africa, HE Adrien Kouambo, so that he can answer charges
on alleged embezzlement.
The Magistrate, Justice Pierre Mpondo Osée, reportedly made the call
recently as he began preliminary inquiries into an FCFA 50 million embezzlement
scandal at the Cameroon High Commission in South Africa.
He is said to have recently written to the Presidency through the Minister
of External Relations.
Meanwhile, one George Mbantio, a hitherto Cameroonian businessman in
Durban, South Africa, who is said to be at the centre of the alleged
embezzlement deal, was arrested and sentenced to pre-trial detention at the Kondengui
Central Prison since May 4.
While narrating his ordeal to The Post, Mbantio said, when Kouambo was
appointed the Cameroonian High Commissioner, he met him and promised to do
business with him.
He said he called him later and gave him a contract to renovate the
residence of the High Commissioner at Water Kloof in Pretoria.
Mbantio said the High Commissioner gave the contract to him and told him to
backdate the documents to December 20, 2008, even though it was in January
2009, so that the bills could be easily paid. The businessman said when he
did that, the High Commissioner told him to take the bill to the
accountant in the High Commissioner, Francis Famfan. He narrated that the accountant
told him, he could not pay the FCFA 50 million and ordered him to do
another quotation worth FCFA 45 million rather.
He said the accountant issued a cheque for him even though he had not yet
done the job. Going by him, Kouambo came to Durban shortly after he put the
money to his account and ordered him to issue cheques and withdraw the
money and give him. He continued that, "When I told him that I had deposited
the cheque in my account, he said, I will have to give him my company cheque
and that if I do not give him, I will know that I am playing with people
who are used to making people disappear".
Mbantio said he got so frightened that he went back to his house and issued
two cheques. One for January 21, 2009 and the other for January 28, 2009
and did not write Kouambo's name as bearer of the cheques as earlier
instructed. "I told Kouambo," the man narrated, "that he should only deposit the
cheque dated January 28, 2009 and not the one dated January 21, 2009. I knew
these cheques were not going to go through since I used a wrong signature
intentionally just to know why he was taking away the job from me."
He claimed that Kouambo flouted his advice and deposited the cheque he told
him not to use and could not get the money. This time around, he said the
High Commissioner issued more threats until he issued cheques paying an
amount of money into his account in the South African currency, the rand,
which was equal to FCFA 15 million.
Mbantio narrated that even after paying this amount into his account; the
High Commissioner multiplied the threats on him until he handed over all the
FCFA 45 million meant for the contract. After paying this amount of money,
he said, Kouambo insisted that he should pay the balance because the
contract was FCFA 50 million.
He said Kouambo increased pressure and death threats on him until he
escaped from South Africa with his family and came back to Cameroon. Upon
learning that he came back to Cameroon, the High Commissioner wrote a complaint
to the Judicial Police in Yaounde accusing Mbantio of theft by false
pretence. After receiving the complaint, the police authorities spread words all
over security services in the country that Mbantio was a wanted man.
The police made little efforts to have their prey as Mbantio later gave up
himself to them.
Hear him: "I have decided to present myself to the authorities because I
know I am innocent. And that I and my family are very- very safe in my
beloved country Cameroon," says Mbantio.
When the Judicial Police finally had Mbantio in their drag net, they
charged him with complicity to the embezzlement of public funds.
The Economic Department of the Judicial Police is asking why the High
Commissioner ordered that money be paid to a contract that has not been
executed. But the High Commissioner' The Economic Department of the Judicial Police
is asking why the High Commissioner ordered that money be paid to a
contract that has not been executed. But the High Commissioner'
accuses Mbantio of thef
It was on this premise that the examining Magistrate wrote to the
Presidency through the Minister of External Relations, calling for the lifting of
the immunity of the High Commissioner for police to interrogate him on the
matter. As Mbantio continues to languish in a pre-trial detention at
Kondengui, legal observers hold that the truth of the embezzlement case can only
come out if the High Commissioner submits himself to the judiciary for
interrogation.
No comments:
Post a Comment