Judge cancels bail for SCNC leader

A Buea Magistrate Court judge has cancelled a bail she had earlier granted to the Yaounde coordinator of the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, Oben Maxwell Eyong.

Justice Beatrice Nambangi made the cancellation decision in chambers on May 28. In cancelling it, the judge said she has reassigned the matter to a panel of judges comprising herself, Magistrates Efundem and Njonjo who will have to hear it in open court hearing.

Barrister Sevidzem Berinyuy, one of Oben’s advocates, told The Journal that he and his peer, Barrister Nkea Emmanuel had argued in chambers with the judge that since the bail had been granted, it should stay until the detainee fulfills the conditions of bailment and leaves jail; a condition which he says is a rule. But the judge, he said, told him Oben’s case was a sensitive one and could not be treated with flippancy.

Asked for reasons he was given for the cancellation, Sevidzem said the judge gave no reason for her ruling. “She has not yet given any reason. We put on a strong motion, pleading that the bailment conditions be made simpler because they were actually difficult conditions. But the judge instead went ahead to cancel it,” the counsel said.

Sevidzem told The Journal that initially Oben was asked to pay the sum of one million FCFA and provide two sureties who own land certificates within Buea municipality.

Sevidzem said he and his colleague argued that Oben was not a resident of Buea and will therefore find it difficult to have sureties with land certificates within Buea municipality as demanded by the judge. They pleaded that the land certificate condition be converted to money so that it would be affordable for their client.

However, judge Nambangi ditched their plea.

Sevidzem disclosed that since Oben was arrested some 16 months ago, none of the prosecution witnesses has ever appeared in court. A situation which the counsel said required the court to throw out the matter, “but the court has gone ahead with the matter.” He regretted

The two counsels have seized the opportunity of the new development to apply in open court for the conditions of bail to be reviewed so that the accused person who is presumed innocent until proven guilty, be taken home on bail when the matter comes up again on June 12 for hearing by the panel and for prosecution witnesses to be served.

Our source also disclosed that Oben was charged alongside a co-accused who has never appeared in court since the hearings began. He regretted that the courts have never made any attempt to issue a warrant for the missing accused nor even asked to know the reasons for his not appearing before the judges.

It is suspected that the missing accused may have been an envoy sent by the regime to set-up Oben into a debate of secession so as to give reason for the police to rrest him, given that Oben was known across the country as a diehard SCNC militant.

A new charge which The Journal gathered has been raised against the detained SCNC activist is that he was arrested “for justifying the crime of secession.”

Oben was arrested in Buea prior to President Biya’s visit to the town on the occasion of the 50th anniversary celebration of Cameroon’s reunification. He was first ferried into detention in Yaounde. Later he was transferred to Buea to face a military tribunal. The military tribunal hurriedly sentenced him to one year in prison renewable.

Few months ago, the military tribunal hands-off the matter to a civil judge which is now pending hearing in open court session.