Court overrules ‘recalcitrant’ SDF mayor’s decision

The administrative court of the North West region has found the mayor of Tubah, Tanjong Martin, guilty of abuse of office.

Tanjong who last year challenged the SDF investiture committee decision and was considered as recalcitrant by his party officials, was faulted by the court for illegally impounding a Volks Wagen car with matriculation number - SW3863C, belonging to Ndi Henry Geh.

Ruling over Suit No. NWAC/008/M/2014, in a case pitting a businessman, Ndi Henry Geh versus Mayor Martin Tanjong and the brigade commander of Tubah, the president of the North West administrative court, Justice Mbah Acha née Rose Ngwari Fomumdam, ruled that Ndi’s vehicle be released with immediate effect.

The complainant, Ndi Henry Geh told The Guardian Post that on May 5, 2014, he had a breakdown in Bambili while travelling to Bamenda. Following the break down, he parked his vehicle by the side of the road, allowing enough passage for other road users to make use of the road without any difficulty.

Ndi stressed that he called a mechanic to come and start repair works on the vehicle. “To my dismay, two other vehicles had an accident opposite my vehicle and when the drivers came out, I discovered that one was the mayor of Tubah council while the other was an unknown person,” Ndi added.

He said after witnessing the scene, he went to buy a spare part for his vehicle but return, he was told by the mechanic that the vehicle had been impounded by gendarmerie officers on instructions of the mayor.

The mechanic quoted the mayor as saying that had Ndi’s car not gotten bad on the way, he (mayor) wouldn’t have had an accident.

In an encounter with the mayor, Ndi alleged that the mayor told him it was because he dislikes his family who had tried to kill him the previous day but didn’t succeed. The mayor is quoted as adding that it was due to the failed murder attempt that Ndi parked his vehicle on the way to cause an accident on the mayor.

Prior to the dragging the matter to court, Ndi said he pleaded with the mayor but the categorically told him he could only release the vehicle if the sum of 250000 FCFA was paid.

So far, Ndi complained that despite the court’s ruling for his vehicle to be released, the order had not been respected even by the time we went to press.

In the mean time, Ndi is claiming 3MFCFA from Mayor Martin Tanjong as damages for impounding his vehicle for 6 months. “Other bills will follow because my mechanic will check the vehicle for proper repairs since Martin Tanjong used force to tow my vehicle to the gendarmerie brigade,” the claimant added.