MRC party to sue D.O for arresting opposition leaders

The MRC, Maurice Kamto’s party intend to pursue legal action against Martin Locko Motassi.

After the repression of the press conference of opposition parties on Tuesday at the headquarters of the MRC in the Odza neighborhood in Yaounde, the party led by Maurice Kamto is ready to sue Martin Locko Motassi, the D.O of the Yaounde IV sub-division, who was the cause of the repression.

According to the National Secretary of Communication of the MRC, Sosthenes Médard Lipot, “the MRC will initiate legal action against the D.O of Yaounde IV sub-division. He violated the constitution; he has violated the 1990 law on freedom of associations and meetings, the African Charter on democracy and governance that Cameroon ratified in 2012. The headquarters of a party is a private place, we did not need permission to hold our press conference,“ we read in the daily newspaper La Nouvelle Expression of Thursday, March 31, 2016.

He argues that this complaint being prepared is the sole initiative of Maurice Kamto’s party. “It is we who received the other parties. It is our property that has been violated. If others wish, they could join us. Otherwise, they constitute witnesses. They watched everything that took place yesterday. Everyone saw that Mr. D.O of Yaounde IV violated the laws,“ said Sosthene Médard Lipot.

The alibi advanced by the four opposition parties that intended to give a press conference at the MRC headquarters (the CPP, the UPC, the MRC and the Universe) is that a press conference does not require a prior declaration, especially when it is held in a private home.

A view which is not shared by the administrative authority, to which the 1990 Act on freedom of association and assembly imposed an event declaration in such cases, private home or not.