Mebe Ngo’o quizzed on embezzlement scandal

The current Minister of Transport, Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o has been interrogated about an embezzlement scandal which involves the swindling of hundreds of millions of FCFA during his tenure as the minister delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense.

He has not been formally accused, but the President of the Republic, who ordered the interrogation, does not understand how a suspicious financial operation would be carried out by a senior military official without the knowledge of the Minister of Defence at the time.

Dependable sources at the Presidency told The Median newspaper that the amount in question is 315 million FCFA put at the disposal of the Interregional Coordination Centre for Maritime Safety in the Gulf of Guinea, headed by Senegalese-born Col. AbdourahmaneDieng.

This money, specially withdrawn by the Presidency of the Republic, was meant for Cameroon’s participation for the said centre.

Sources said, the problem is the fact that the amount was not transferred in its entirety to the centre. Rear Admiral Jean Mendoua, the marine chief of staff, through whose hands the money passed, is reported to have reserved 232 million FCFA for his cabinet and handed a paltry 77.757 million FCFA to Col. Abdourahmane for the centre he heads. Where the remaining 5.249 million went, no one can tell.

MebeNgo’o has been implicated in the matter because he was the Minister of Defense when the operation took place.

“MebeNgo’o’s quizzing took place under the high instruction of the President of the Republic who is not very happy with his ‘son’”, one of our sources told us. “The President does not understand how such an operation could take place without the knowledge of the then minister of Defense.”

Put on mission, by Jean Baptiste Bokam, secretary of state in charge of the gendarmerie, Colonel Nsom interrogated Edgard Alain MebeNgo’o in the cabinet of his ministry on Friday, December 4, 2015.

The content of the interrogation is not exactly known to The Median neither has the minister been officially accused of involvement in the scam. However, the quizzing does not augur well for MebeNgo’o, especially as it was ordered by his “father”, President Paul Biya.

The close-to-59-year-old Minister of Transport did marvels as delegate general for National Security, but his seven-year stay at the Defense ministry left much to be desired.

Unsatisfactory comments were made from close circles when he piloted the juicy contract of the buying of arms for the fight against Boko Haram; the buying of Ukrainian combat helicopters; and the buying of combat vehicles as well as those for the transport of troops.