When Tchiroma masters the law

Tchiroma:Marafa Hamidou Yaya is not a political prisoner as indicated by the report but an ordinary prisoner who was found guilty and sentenced for embezzling state funds

Cameroon's Communication Minister and Spokesman for the New Deal Government of Paul Biya in a recent outing in Yaoundé, described imprisoned former Minister of Territorial administration and Decentralization, Marafa Hamidou YAYA,as a normal prisoner sentenced to 20 years in jail for intellectual complicity and embezzlement of public funds of about 14.5 billion FCFA.

The Government Spokesman was reacting to allegations by the United Nations Working Group on Abitrary Detention that Marafa is a political prisoner. Thciroma, who has always been on the defensive, was once more seen in the spotlight making mouth watery declarations.

In fact the Communication boss lambasted the results of an investigation carried out by five prominent UN appointed Jurists described by Marafa’s Counsel as Impartial and Independent Professors. It didn’t take more than a week for THCIROMA to present a defensive paper against a work that was done for six months. He was quick to say the UN Working group on Arbitrary Detention, WGAD, is not a court, not a conventional body and not even a supranational jurisdiction.

Mr Tchiroma in his own words seems to say the Government of Cameroon did not violate any of what the Rights group has outlined ,that the rights of Marafa has been fully respected. But NO, the UN WGAD says Marafa was denied the right to fair public trial by impartial and independent judges, in clear violation of Cameroons voluntarily assumed obligations under article 10 of the United Nations declaration of Human Rights and article 14 of the international covenant on civil and political rights to fair public trial. Critics hold the response by Issa Tchiroma Bakary to the UN WGAD is similar to that which he gave to Amnesty International. Scanty, attacking. Poor in quality and heavy in quantity.

The government is giving an impression to the public that these foreign bodies hate Cameroon so much that they want to destroy it. Issa TCHIROMA attacked Amnesty International with an ill prepared counter offensive paper that only went a long way to rain insults on the Rights Group. But Both Tchiroma and Col. Badjeck of MINDEF lacked statistics in their counter report. An indication that Amnesty did their job at the back yard of the victim.

Critics have argued that Tchiroma had lame facts which proved the ill prepared nature of the Government in handling issues like this. Can the government not accept for once that they have made a mistake? Cameroon was quick to dance when Nigeria accepted the Bakassi peace agreement, what if Nigeria had refused? What if Nigeria had said same thing that the UN has no right to rule in favour of Cameroon? Cameroon joined the UN in 1960 and agreed to go by its decisions by implementing resolutions from any arm of the Institution.

My University Lecturers always told me that the Law is black and white with grey edges. We of Cameroon Concord support the government in its fight against terrorism, corruption and as a sovereign state; we think that foreign interference is out of question.

But we as watchdog of the society are totally against inhumane treatment of innocent citizens with wide spread harassment by military in the Far North Region as reported by Amnesty International. People should be given fair treatment, fair trial like any free Cameroonian.

Being the devil’s advocate will only go a long way to destroy the democratic principles preached by the government, preaching virtue and practising vice.