Gov’t orders military siege of Oyono's office

The general manager of one of Cameroon’s most lucrative state corporations, Douala Ports Authority, Emmanuel Etoundi Oyono, has died.

According to a report by state broadcaster, CRTV, early Monday morning, the 65-year-old died in a Paris hospital Sunday morning.

Same Sunday afternoon, The Cameroon Journal was privy to the information but it appeared to be very conflicting. The information was to the effect that he was in a state of coma in a hospital in Paris, France, after a long battle with cancer.

However, the information which quickly went viral on the social media also had another version that he had actually died, even though sources close to the general manager, including senior officials at the port, maintained that he was only in a critical state, battling between life and death.

We also gathered Sunday evening that, while the rumours concerning Oyono were circulating, administrative officials quickly ordered for Oyono’s Douala office to be sealed. Firm instructions also came from high quarters in Yaounde that the premises be kept under heavy military surveillance.

It would be recalled that due to his reported long illness, said to be a cancer infection, Oyono, before his demise, had left the management of the ports authority vacant for about three months last year until his deputy was officially designated to act in the interim when his absence became worrisome.

The so called long absence had equally sparked controversy, with many rushing to the conclusion that he had escaped the claws of the operation sparrow hawk which was said to be hovering over him.

In the heat of the speculations about his supposed escape, Oyono made a surprise come-back to the country; to a red-carpet welcome at the Douala international airport, seemingly as proof he was not escaping from the sparrow hawk investigation. At the time, it was said that he looked so frail that most of the workers at the authority, including his close collaborators, could barely make him out.

Etoundi Oyono, it should be recalled, was appointed general manager of the Douala Ports Authority in 2012. He and the institution’s board chair, Shey Jones Yembe, were installed into their functions on the same day (March 28, 2012) by the then minister of transport, Robert Nkili.

Since then, Oyono faced one controversy after another with most of such controversies linking him with embezzlement and mismanagement while at the helm of one the ports authority. At the time of this report, government was yet to officially comment on the death.