Hon Sona Elonge is no more

The death has been reported of Honourable Sona Elonge, one-time Member of Parliament, MP, for the Kumba urban constituency.

The former lawmaker, who had reportedly taken ill sometime ago, is said to have given up the ghost on January 7, 2016. His corpse is lodged at the Kumba Hospital Mortuary, pending burial pronouncements.

Elonge, who enjoyed political fame during the heydays of Bello Bouba's National Union for Democracy and Progress (NUDP) was equally the pioneer Principal of the Cameroon College of Arts and Science (CCAS) Kumba.

The educationist, who served the defunct Ministry of National Education for over three decades, once in his career, dropped from the position of Provincial Delegate to CCAS Kumba where he had served as Principal, as a classroom teacher.

Though he maintained a calm posture in the last decade, the erstwhile NUDP Member of Parliament, by his acumen and profile, was not free from the political intrigues that are typical of Meme Division.

Besides rising to the position of Provincial Delegate in his career, Hon Sona Elonge once served as Provincial Coordinator of the NUDP for the Southwest and Central Committee member of the party.

On March 24, 2006, in a spate of surprise announcements during the 21st anniversary of the Cameroon Peoples' Democratic Movement (CPDM) party, the Section President of the then Meme I Section, Prince Ekale Mukete, described Elonge as one of the high profile resignations from opposition parties.

Speaking back then, Ekale presented Sona Elonge, alongside other high profile resignations of the current Deputy Coordinator of the Good Governance Programme, Lydia Effimba and Augustine Mandi, as the new members of the CPDM party.

Ekale used the Holy Scriptures with inspiration from Luke 15:27, to depict the joy that the resignations brought to the CPDM.

The erstwhile educationist, who was equally a member of the Sasse Old Boys Association, SOBA, shortly after his resignation from the NUDP, entered the race for the position of Government Delegate to the Kumba City Council, according to allegations.

The war to get a successor for Caven Nnoko Mbele, pointed to the direction of the deceased, considering the spectacular move of former Prime Minister, Ephraim Inoni, to appoint Lydia Effimba to the position of Deputy Coordinator of the Good Governance Programme, few months after she resigned from the Social Democratic Font (SDF).

The unprecedented move taken by Inoni, who was said to be at loggerheads with major CPDM stakeholders in Kumba to project Effimba, sent political witch hunters to work for fear of another newcomer to be given a position of responsibility.

Peeved by Inoni’s move, the CPDM leadership in Kumba, back then, reportedly declined sending a motion of support to Inoni. The militants had reportedly downplayed the appointment to block a possible appointment of Sona Elonge to the position of Government Delegate.

At the level of the Parliament, Elonge, The Post gathered, was one of the key MPs who first read the bill to extend the term of office of the President of the Republic. He is said to have been one of those picked to appreciate it when Professor Joseph Owona conceived the revised constitution.

Details concerning the funeral of the deceased are yet to be made public.