Meme CAMASEJ president gets no-confidence vote; questions locus

Despite serving a vote of no-confidence, the president of the Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists, CAMASEJ Meme, Ndian and Kupe Muanenguba joint chapter, Larry Esong Akang, has vowed that he would not step down as president until his mandate expires.

Larry Esong took the firm stand after some 15 journalists passed a vote of no confidence on him, describing him as a bad leader who cannot lead them.

According to the president, the suppose vote of no-confidence is null and void because it was signed by persons who had no locus standi. Esong argued that it is the exclusive prerogative of the national bureau of CAMASEJ to pass sanctions on its members and not the chapter.

Moreover, Esong disclosed that some signatories in the likes of Ashu Manfred and Asong Sylvester are not members of CAMASEJ. He went further to add that even the ‘so-called’ members who signed the sanction were not financially up-to-date as per the constitution of CAMASEJ.

It is in the light of the above that Larry Esong revealed he will use all legal and administrative measures to sanction the journalists whom he termed ‘opportunists’. “They had gone wayward by creating another association.

It failed and they have now come back to hijack CAMASEJ”, Esong disclosed. In the meantime, Jude Njinjuh of Eden was unanimously voted last Friday by the ‘rebellious’ CAMASEJ members as interim president of CAMASEJ Meme, following a vote of no-confidence that was passed on the president on July 24.

The main signatories of the vote of no-confidence hold that their action was provoked when Larry Esong orchestrated the arrest of the Kumba bureau chief of The Guardian Post , Njingang Godwin who was later detained for five hours at the gendarmerie brigade.

Much earlier, Esong is faulted with having engaged unnecessarily in a bitter confrontation with the Kumba bureau chief of Eden.

He is said to have had several encounters with Maxcel Fokwen of The Post. It is also alleged that Esong seized all CAMASEJ properties from the secretary general, Innocent Yuh.

In the heat of the controversy, the interim CAMASEJ president, Jude Njinjuh has promised to revamp the activities of the chapter by organising seminars and exchange visits among other activities.

If endorsed by the national executive, the interim president whose mandate will run till December 2014, will have the task of organising fresh elections, soliciting foreign partners who will fund workshops and encourage the registration of new members in to the association, The Guardian Post was told.

According to the communiqué, a copy of which was sent to our newsroom, Larry Esong has up to ten days to hand over all the association’s properties in his keeping to the interim bureau.

As we went to press, we gathered that a crisis meeting called by the SDO for Meme will hold on Saturday August 2, 2014.