4 anglophone activists charged with terrorism

Four Southern Cameroon's National Council, SCNC activists who were arrested in Bamenda and Kumbo recently have been charged with acts of terrorism. However, the whereabouts of two others is unknown.

They were all arrested by the Police, but the Police is denying custody of the two. It is feared that they may have died in custody and the Police is trying to cover their tracks.

Barrister Blaise Sevidzem Berinyuy, counsel for the activists told the Journal last night that Stephen Kongso, Numvi Walters, Che Clovis and Tabufor Andrew have been charged under Section 5 (1) of the anti-terrorism law.

Section 5 (1) of the anti-terrorism law states: “Whoever recruits and or trains people to participate in acts of terrorism; regardless of where the acts are committed, shall be punished with the death penalty.”

Sevidzem said ,the activists were picked up while simply walking the streets of Bamenda and Kumbo. The four will have to face a death penalty should the Bamenda Military Tribunal maintain the charges and find them guilty of committing the offence. “They can be sentenced to death by firing squad if found guilty according to Section 5(1) of the anti-terrorism law.” Barrister Sevidzem hinted. He said the first hearing has been fixed for August 3.

He recounted that the detainees are not only held under inhuman conditions at the Bamenda central prison but are not allowed to be visited by members of the public or even their families. “It is only recently that I, as their lawyer was given a written authorization by the State Counsel of the Bamenda Military Tribunal to visit them…any of their family members who wishes to visit them in prison must have to go through the pains of getting an authorization from the Military Tribunal before doing so,” Sevidzem told the Journal.

He added that the detainees are “complaining of severe torture. Besides, they have been locked up in cells without toilets and are allowed to urinate only in plastic bottles.”

While Pa Njumbam Vincent, 70, who was pulled out from church in Kumbo by police without warrant has been released, nothing is being said of the fate of two other activists, Ajuazuen Nelson and Abajeh Valentine.

Not only has there been conflicting reports about the exact whereabouts of Ajuazuen and Abajeh; arrested alongside the other five SCNC activists, their family members and SCNC officials told the Journal that they have made frantic efforts to determine their whereabouts to no avail. The two hail from Ngie subdivision in Momo division. N for Ngala Nfor, National Vice Chairman of the SCNC, stated recently that he sent lawyers to where the activists were supposedly being detained to verify their situation, but the judicial police told them that there were no such detainees in their keeping. “These are Southern Cameroonians who have been arrested by the autocratic forces of the Biya regime. And now they are claiming that they don’t know their whereabouts,” Nfor Nfor lamented.