Millions uncovered in ceiling of Minister’s Secretary

“The story of this on-going case at the magistrate court of Yaounde has been in the news since a year ago, but for the fact that the person concerned is very influential and rich, and has been corrupting every journalist who stumbles on it.

As I speak to you now, if you are one of such reporters, you can meet him now and he will make you an offer you can’t refuse. He has been corrupting the press since September 2013.”

These were the words of Paul Assien Aboyoyo, lawyer who is currently defending four youngsters bundled to detention by Achille Christian Tsalla, Private Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Lazare Essimi Manye. Manye was Minister of Finance before the last cabinet reshuffle in 2011.

According to Aboyoyo, a certain Jeanne Ngoulou, a housemaid at Christian Tsalla’s home had stumbled on hundreds of millions in her master’s ceiling. Aboyoyo said, Ngoulou, 21, then informed her boyfriend of the discovery.

The 28-year-old boyfriend, one Joseph Francois Arendja’a Bebou, decided to pay a visit to Tsalla’s house to see for himself.

Once there, he reached a plan with other house maids working for the minister’s private secretary. According to the plan, they were to visit the house, collect as much money as they could, then change the position of some items in the house to suggest a robbery scene.

On the day of execution, Ngoulou the girl friend was not to be part of the operation. Her boyfriend and two other boys; 22-year-old Amadou Patrick Mboma and 23-year-old Vincent de Paul Bedieng, were the ones to carry out the operation. At Tsalla’s home, they succeeded to load suitcases and travelers’ bags with the stolen money.

However, as they made their way out of the house, at the sitting room area, they met with elements of the rapid intervention unit of the police, known by its French acronym as ESSIR.

“The ESSIR officers asked the operators to put down their bags which they did. The police officials fired rubber bullets on their knees after they had confirmed that the bags were fully loaded with FCFA bank notes. This was done despite their being submissive,” Aboyoyo, their lawyer narrated. Jeanne Ngoulou (girlfriend), was summoned by officers.

They told her they were going to kill her boyfriend if she failed to show up. She obeyed.

When she showed up, they were all conveyed to the regional delegation of the judicial police where the police took statements from them. Few days later, the police transferred them to the Yaounde central prison where they have been in pre-trial detention since September, 2013.

According to Aboyoyo, their lawyer, the ESSIR police officers happened to be coconspirators of the private secretary who had been on standby, following a tip-off from a security guard. The guard had hinted Tsalla, “who in turn, called his friends from his native Etone tribe and arranged with them to deal with the ‘strangers’ accordingly.”

Aboyoyo disclosed that he got involved in the case after being contacted by one Essimbi Abebong, one of the detainees elder brother - Arendja’a. They tried to get the injured boys to the hospital for medical attention, but before the doctors could carry out surgery to take out rubber bullets stuck inside their knees, security forces came and snatched them back to Kondengui prison.

They have since appeared in court four times, however, the trial is yet to begin. The case has been adjourned four times, on grounds that documents which the examining judge, Pascal Magnaguemabe signed, ‘Ordonance de Renvoi,’ permitting the court to hear the matter were soaked by water and are not readable.

Aboyoyo is arguing that the four youngsters charged with aggravated theft and coactions are not hardened criminals as the prosecutors have claimed. He says the incessant adjournment of the case is just an indication that the youngsters touched the untouchable.

He lamented that it is unheard of, that a case is adjourned four times because of a six paged-document, which both the defense and prosecuting lawyers have copies, copies which at the request of the court president could be reproduced or reprinted in no time.

He told reporters that before the September 2 court session which lasted just a few minutes, Jeanne Ngoulou and the boys had been secretly brought to court in August against his knowledge.

“I only learned of it through grapevine and ran to their rescue. Those boys are sick, and need medical attention, come to court on October 1 and see for yourself.” He lamented.

Enter Tsalla’s lawyer

In the meantime, on the side of Tsalla and his lawyer, Barrister Maloka Dikongue, the matter is being enveloped in mystery. When the Journal met Maloka last Wednesday in his Nlongkak chambers in Yaounde, the lawyer, visibly shaken having been taken by surprise, will not initially agree to disclose necessary information, instead, he described the act of the four boys as a violation of residence.

Very arrogantly, he stated that he was not in the mood to discuss the issue with any journalist. “What do you want from me? How did you know about this matter? What is your interest in the matter? Is it everything that you must investigate?” He asked.

However, when our reporters briefed him on the subject, realizing they already had a good grasp of the facts, Maloka opened up, stating that Christian Tsalla adopted the lady in question, Ngoulou Owona from childhood, but that she had long quit the house before her offence.

“Each time she came to the house, she was merely visiting as a child who grew up there.” He intimated. Though he admitted that Ngoulou’s accessories were actually caught in Achilles’ home, he refuted claims that they were caught gathering huge sums of money hoarded in the ceiling.

“Well, that’s what I also hear, an allegation which resembles the truth. But as the prosecution lawyer, I want to tell you that it is all rumour. Who in this century can still afford the risk to stash such amounts of money at home?” I think people are just trying to make a mountain out of an anthill.” He argued.

Asked what the accused were up to before the police were invited to intervene if they were not trying to cart away money, Maloka said, he could not say exactly what they were doing but corroborated that money could as well have constituted part of their mission. “But not the kind of unconscionable sums of money as claimed by the accused.”

He claimed that the idea to violate Tsalla’s home was a long concocted plan by Ngoulou’s fiancé after she told him that she had seen some money in the house.

He denied; however, that the accused were shot on their legs by the police called in to counter the act.

The lawyer took offence when we quizzed him on accusations that he and his client were using part of the huge sums of money stashed in the ceiling to delay the court trial. In a rather impulsive tone, Maloka who did not allow the question to be completed, cut in - “those are unfounded allegations. First of all, before coming here you kept on calling me with several numbers.

Today you call with MTN, and tomorrow you call with Orange. I’m giving you authentic information now and you’re asking me baseless questions?” He retorted.

Meantime, while the defense lawyer is accusing the prosecution of filibustering the trial, opened since June 3 this year, the latter is shoving the accusations on the jury. So far, the matter has witnessed four audiences at the Yaounde magistrate court.

June 3, July 1, August 5 and September 2. At the last hearing, the chief judge, while adjoining the matter to October 1, claimed that his own copy of the criminal suit was not legible owing to the fact that the document was soaked in rain.

Maloka claimed that he has at his own level done everything to ensure a rapid hearing but has on all occasions met with a lot of reticence from the court. He brandished a copy of the adjournment ruling which he said constituted only six pages.

Asked how much it would cost to simply reprint another copy so as to avoid the numerous adjournments, the lawyer said with barely 8000FCFA, another copy could be printed.

“Barrister, do you mean to say this matter has been suffering all these adjournments because of 8000FCFA?” The Journal asked.

“Of course yes. I even asked the court registrar if I could pay for another copy of the adjournment decision to be printed, but she reminded me openly that even the examining magistrate in whose office the document would be printed is also expecting something. That means if someone intends to personally foot the bill to reproduce a new copy, he should be ready to spend at least 25. 000FCFA. We were to choose between two dates, and I battled for a later date, October 1, so that they could have enough time to prepare the document.”

Maloka obliquely warned our reporters about this story, stating that though a good practice, not all stories should be chased by journalists at the expense of their lives.

“Some of these issues are very delicate. You may decide to follow up a particular matter like this and end up losing your own life.” He ‘counseled.’ “I only agreed to talk to you because you are Anglophones and you take your job seriously, all Francophone journalists, without any exception, only come here for money” He said.