President Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and the other 9 detainees were yesterday the 10th July 2019 notified with a decision of the President of the Court of Appeals Centre Region dated 02nd May 2019 in their petition recusing Magistrates MEM Michel, EDOU MEWOUTOU Fidele Arman and NGOUONGUE TIANI Sandrine.

Our senior political man, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai observed that the court pursuant to their petition, received the  Statement of Defense of the Respondents as well as the Submissions of the Legal Department and proceeded straight to judgment which they kept in their drawers until Counsel for the Petitioners raised the issue of non determination of the said application yesterday and they now rushed to notify them with certified copies of the said Judgment known in French as “Expedition” signed only by the Registrar of the court.

It should be noted that unlike the case of the matter against Lt Col MISSE NJONE JACQUES wherein the Petitioners were fined to pay a symbolic franc, in this case they’ve been fined to pay each of only two Respondents, to wit, Magistrates EDOU MEWOUTOU Fidele Armand and NGOUONGUE TIANI Sandrine the sum of Five Hundred Thousands francs CFA as damages for moral prejudice.

What is most disturbing which is peculiar to the Civil Law jurisdiction of French Cameroun is the fact that for a serious application of this nature and wherein by law the court sits as first and last resort with no possibility of appeal against its decision, the Petitioner is never served with the documents filed by both the Respondents and the Legal Department in response to their application …so they’re only served the judgment. This is an application which by nature is necessarily adversarial or contradictory in nature. This is purely a gross violation of the right to Fair Hearing.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde