Victor Tambang On Trial Again!

The former Registrar-in-Chief of the Bamenda Court is accused of embezzling over FCFA 60 million amongst other offences.

The former Registrar-in-Chief of the Bamenda Court of First Instance, Victor Tambang Mbang Menji, who was declared guilty and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court on May 10, 2013 after accusations of misappropriating and attempting to misappropriate public funds, was again yesterday September 25, 2013 brought before the Special Criminal Court in Yaounde.

A committal order made by an Examining Magistrate of the Mezam High Court in the North West Region charges him again before the Special Criminal Court with the offence of misappropriating the sum of FCFA 67,579,737 belonging to the State of Cameroon. This is an offence contrary to and punishable under section 184 (1) (a) of the Penal Code. The Head of the panel of Judges hearing the case, Mr Justice Bea Abednego Kala said the hearing could not begin since the accused person could not be identified and his counsel was also absent from court. As such, the matter was adjourned to October 15, 2013.

Yesterday's court session that lasted less than 10 minutes permitted other parties in the case to identify themselves. Advocate General, Richard Wanki was sitting in for the Legal Department while Barrister Emmanuel Nyoh was sitting for the Civil Party. The Committal Order bringing Victor Tambang before the Special Criminal Court also charged him with related offences he committed when he was working as the Registrar- in-Chief of the Bamenda Court of First Instance from 2004 to 2009.

Amongst the offences is the forgery of a government stamp (the PAID stamp of the government treasury in Bamenda) which is an offence contrary to and punishable under section 203 (1) of the Penal Code. At the same time, Victor Tambang is also charged with the forgery of emolument vouchers. The Committal Order states that Victor Tambang altered the amount on the regularly signed emolument vouchers and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 205 (1) of the Penal Code.

The former Registrar-in-Chief is also charged for making use of the forged vouchers and this is punishable under section 205 (2) of the Penal Code as well as using title of honour which he was not entitled to (Justice Tambang Victor) which is punishable under section 220 of the Penal Code.

The preliminary inquiry of the case was conducted by the Examining Magistrate of the High Court of Mezam and since the amount is more than FCFA 50 million, Victor Tambang has been committed to appear before the Special Criminal Court for trial.