John Ebong Ngolle testified in Court denying haven authorized Metouck on the 18 February 2013 to enter into his former office.
The Board Chairman of the National Oil Refinery Company, John Ebong Ngolle has told the Limbe Court of First Instance that he did not authorize the former General Manager of SONARA, Charles Metouck to go back to his former office to prepare for the technical handing over. Ebong Ngolle who testified in Court on Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 April 2013 also debunked claims that he signed the controversial "A qui de droit" document which supposedly gave Metouck the leeway into the refinery. "I do not recognize this document. The document has the date of 15 February but the document I signed was dated 18th February," Ebong Ngolle explained. He however admitted haven signed a certain document which was presented to him by Edinguelle Edinguelle Jean Joule (2nd accused) on Monday 18th February 2013 about 4pm pertaining to the meeting that was fixed on the 20th of February 2013. He could not produce the said document in court arguing that Edinguelle brought only a single copy to him and did not bring his copy later as he instructed him to do.
The Board Chairman revealed that he later received a telephone call from the 2ndaccused that evening in which he asked him to accept to police investigators to have conceived and prepared the document he (Ebong Ngolle) had signed earlier. "The insolence from someone who is my subordinate made me to think that something was wrong and so when I got to Buea I immediately filed a complaint against him".
Mr. Ebong Ngolle insisted that Metouck was to be seen in the refinery as per his directives and as agreed between the outgoing, the incoming GM and the Board Chairman, only on Wednesday 20th February 2013 and not on Monday 18 February. He said the meeting that was to be attended by the three of them in the presence of security operatives, administrative officials and the project manager was for the new General Manager to be briefed on SONARA's expansion project currently going on.
The 2ndand the 3rd accused (Edinguelle and Ngale Mouelle respectively) all pleaded not guilty to the charges against them in their testimonies to the court on Monday.
The defense Counsels through Barrister Njilla prayed the Court to engage a signature expert to determine whether Ebong Ngolle's signature was forged or not. He also urged the Court to visit a locus to SONARA in order to determine whether some documents were destroyed amongst other things. He cited sections 319 and 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to buttress his argument.
This was counteracted by the State Counsel for Limbe, Magistrate Eni Mokube who argued that justice delayed is justice denied adding that a court is not an investigation unit. He said the applications the defense counsels made does not tie with section 319 of the CPC. Eni pointed out that the issue in court is the form and content of the document titled "A qui de droit" marked exhibit 'G' and the argument he added, is that Mr Ebong Ngolle disputes both the form and the content of that document. He opined that no document exist between Metouck, Edinguelle and Ebong Ngolle and would be futility for the court to engage an expert. On the issue of locus, he stated that contentious issues must have been raised for there to be a visit to the locus.
Magistrate Tatsi Theophilus objected to the submissions stating that he reserves the right to visit the locus as per section 388(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code. He thus adjourned the case to Wednesday April 24 for verdict while written submissions must be filed at the registry before the 17th of April 2013.
