Mystery surrounds Prof. Yanou’s death

Michael Akomaye Yanou, the lone Professor of law at the Department of Law of the University of Buea is dead.

Reports have it that the legal practitioner who was also Director in charge of Conflict Resolution and Dialogue at the Ministry of Higher Education was “killed”, Tuesday, January 27, 2015, in a car accident along the Edea-Yaoundé highway.

The SUN learnt that Yanou was on his way to Yaoundé from Buea after delivering lectures at the University of Buea.

“We had lectures with him on Saturday and Monday where he taught effectively,” a student said.

Many wagging tongues have it that upon driving to Buea from Yaoundé on January 23, he cheated death in an accident.

Barrister Anthony Tchana Yanou, Prof. Yanou’s cousin is reported to have confirmed that Yanou had an accident on January 23 in Edea on his way to Buea. The car was damaged, but it is said that he came out safe and managed to get the car to Douala for repairs, before continuing his journey to Buea by public transport.

Unfortunately, the accident of Tuesday, January 27, 2015 took away his life.

Yanou’s driver, Joseph Ediaga, who sustained injuries from the accident, received medical attention at the Buea Regional Hospital Annex. The driver is reported to have said that he can’t really explain the cause of the accident.

“I succeeded in giving passage to a truck that appeared abruptly in front of me and actually swerved back to my lane. It was like a dream, when I realized that the car was somersaulting in the bush,” the driver is quoted as saying.

Reports have it that Prof. Yanou died shortly after being removed from the car.

Shock waves swept through the University of Buea when news of Yanou’s death was broken. Members of the University of Buea Chapter of the National Union of Teachers of Higher Education (SYNES-UB) were particularly saddened given that Yanou is the recent past president of the chapter.

Dr. Fontem A. Neba, Secretary of SYNES-UB chapter and Dr. James Abangma, SYNES-UB President both described the death of Prof. Yanou as unfortunate. They hold that Yanou’s demise is a great loss to the university community, to SYNES and to the judiciary where he was very instrumental.

Yanou’s remains are presently at the Buea Regional Hospital Mortuary.

He was prior to moving to the University of Buea a lecturer in the faculties of law of the Universities of Uyo and Calabar in Nigeria respectively.

Besides holding a PhD from Rhodes University, South Africa, he was a fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge University. Yanou was a practicing advocate of the Supreme Courts of Cameroon and Nigeria and had published several articles in learned journals.

His outstanding books publish include: Dispossession and Access to Land in South Africa and Labour Law: Principles and Practice in Cameroon.

Until his death, he served as Director of Conflict Resolution and Dialogue at the Ministry of Higher Education.