Dear senior colleague, I am Barrister A P Asafor formerly Secretary/founding member of Meme Lawyers Association (MELA).Presently I am the President of Southern Cameroonians in Los Angeles (SCILA) California. We met several times during Cameroon Bar Association meetings in Yaounde,Douala and Bamenda mostly in the 90s.

I remember you running for a Bar Council seat during one of these meetings. I was impressed by your contributions during discussions at the General Assembly. In the recent past when you propounded and defended the SC/Ambazonian position in Equinox TV and various other media outlets, my admiration for your fearlessness grew. You spoke with a boldness and candour,that could not but convince your listeners that you knew what you were talking about. Our people say that “when I do well no one remembers, but when I do something bad, everyone remembers!”

As lead counsel for the SC/Ambazonian Leadership in French Cameroun jails, I observed that you and your team of lawyers have done a commendable job so far. Ambazonians cheered for you and your colleagues. They saw you as “knights in shining armor“, who would ultimately rescue our Leaders.               Now, permit me to fast-forward to your recent utterances on ABC AMBA TV, and other media.

You unleashed a bomb by your various utterances. Due to time constraints, permit me go into just a few and make my observations as your keen admirer. The most outstanding revelation you made was that Sissiku AyukTabe Julius, imprisoned Ambazonian Leader is compromised (by French Cameroun officials ostensibly.) You offered as evidence, the possibility that Ayuk Tabe met with the Director of Cabinet of Paul  Biya,and also with Kamto Maurice (the acclaimed winner of French Cameroun’s last presidential elections) who happened to be in the same jail (Kondengui) as Sissiku.

You also alluded to documents being released by Sissiku AyukTabe without consulting you. And finally there was the reference to Sissiku stating that you are no longer his Attorney.  Sir, the evidence you presented to buttress your allegations that Sissiku Ayuk Tabe is compromised, are so circumstantial, frivolous, and totally lacking in relevance, that no one except the gullible public would even consider it. For such serious accusations as you’ve leveled against Sissiku, the requirements must be concrete, compelling irrefutable evidence as proof. What you offered as best is mere speculation, which anyone with a healthy imagination can concoct. “Sissiku met with Biya’s Director of Civil cabinet. Biya declared war on Ambazonia. Therefore, Sissiku’s meeting with that gentleman can only mean that: Sissiku is compromised!!” 

Again, Sissiku met with Maurice Kamto,who claims to have won presidential elections, and has been imprisoned by Biya in Kondengui. Sissiku’s meeting with Kamto,to you has only one reason. He is compromised! Is that the only conclusion that can be drawn from Sissiku’s meeting with those 2 individuals, if at all, he did? How many apartheid leaders did Mandela meet while incarcerated? Almost all of the last four! Did that make him compromised? Sir, with your 30 years experience as a practicing Attorney, it’s my humble opinion that you can do better than this.

Senior Colleague, we were taught in the Nigerian Law School, during Professional Ethics, that there is client/lawyer confidentiality. All information that a client discloses to his Attorney, or that the Attorney comes across, in the course of his retention by the client is protected by attorney/client confidentiality. That said, your disclosures on public media, of information that you acquired as Lawyer for the SC/Ambazonian leaders has seriously breached the rule on confidentiality. Not only that, your exposures portray your client in bad light, and amount to character assassination  defamation and exposing his life to risk! Think carefully about your words Sir, and the timeliness of your so-called revelations. The social media has exploded and is abuzz in the past couple of days with your allegations.

As someone who believes in the Struggle of Ambazonians to throw off the yoke of neo colonialism,it is my humble submission that your revelations have done more harm than good to our Struggle. You have “washed our dirty linen in full view of the entire world”! Are you happy now?  Even if Sissiku AyukTabe is guilty of all the crimes you accuse him of, is the world stage the best forum to seek for redress? Do you seriously believe in this fight? Or is it merely an opportunity for you to build your popularity, and amass wealth at the expense of our suffering masses and leaders?  Could you not have approached a select group of SC/Ambazonian “elders/wise men” to look into and resolve these issues without resorting to this drama of yours?

Finally, would it be true that your public outrage is mere vengeful payback at Sissiku over his reduction of the monies you were getting from this “brief”?   The other Lawyers who are involved in defending our leaders (Hon Barrister Oroh of Nigeria, Barrister Yong etc, why haven’t they raised the same concerns as you have?   If,Sissiku Ayuk Tabe has been compromised, how come just last week he released a powerful letter to the UNO and the world, stating conditions under which Ambazonians will negotiate? Were the contents of that letter, evidence of a man who is “compromised?” Doesn’t the Bible say that “by their words we shall know them?”

In summary, I would opine that casting aspersions on Sissiku AyukTabe’s name and person has not portrayed you in the best of lights. You have accused a man (your client,) tried him, and sentenced him to condemnation, all this while he is incarcerated without the opportunity to reply. Boxers would say you “hit below the belt!” Others less polite would say: you stabbed your client in the back, in the dark!  And in trying to exact vengeance you caused untold havoc to the SC/Ambazonian Struggle! Think about it as you enjoy your new-found fame on social media. “He who throws up gravel in the market place, should not be surprised if his wife returns home blind”. The cockroach says that it does not talk much, not because it is dumb, but because its words, if carelessly released, have the potential of scattering the market place!

By Barrister Asafor