Former Minister of Finance and Agriculture, Lazare Essimi Menye
The former treasurer of Cameroon is currently on a medical evacuation abroad.
The prosecutor of the Special Criminal Court (SCC) invites the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Essimi Menye, to appear on 1 August. The former member of the Government who is expected next Monday at the SCC headquarters would be in the US for health concerns.
Before leaving Cameroon, Essimi Menye was already at the heart of some financial scandals. In its edition of 15 January 2015, the newspaper La Meteo indicated that Essimi Menye who had been “overtaken by the scandal of FCFA 9 billion ” would have been cooked in the office of Laurent Esso “for nearly three hours by the sleuths of the SCC, determined to lift the veil surrounding the numerous cases of embezzlement of public funds which he was the author. ”
The first judicial concern of Essimi Menye was related to the diversion of FCFA 9.025 billion for the restructuring of Amity Bank of Cameroon (ABC), when he was the finance minister. Another issue that follows him like his shadow is that of Cameroon Tobacco Company (CTC).
“Appointed Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in December 2011, he would have given orders to the liquidator of the CTC to sell that company to a close for a small fee of 50 million CFA francs.”
Sacked after the last Government reshuffle in October 2015, Essimi Menye was then admitted to the health center of the National Social Insurance Fund (CNPS) Yaounde.
After three weeks of immobility at the CNPS, the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, who requested a medical evacuation for a more reassuring follow up of his disease then left Cameroon in December “under the instructions of the head of state“, according to his family. For some, the former minister will not return to Cameroon to put himself into the mouth of the ruthless Sparrow hawk.
