The Criminal Procedure Code is useless- Barrister Ajong

Erstwhile President of the Fako Lawyers Association, Barrister Ajong Stanislaus, has averred that the Criminal Procedure Code is as bad as being useless.

The learned Barrister was responding to questions from THE SUN’s Managing Editor, Norbert Wasso Binde in an exclusive interview.

The both exchanged on issues relating the Bamenda Declaration and equally mentioned that Barrister Tabe Tando has his reasons for his opinions concerning the lawyers’ decision; though to him, those opinions are that of a businessman man and politician and not that of a lawyer.

Read on:

Barrister Ajong Stanislaus, you were very instrumental in the meeting of Anglophone lawyers in Bamenda that came out with a powerful memorandum; some say it is a good move but that it was belated. What is your reaction to that?

Well, that is the opinion of those who say so and everyone is entitled to his or her opinion but what is certain is that we were bound to do something some time and God made it that it should be this time.

How decided and how serious do you think the lawyers are?

Just by meeting and taking the resolutions would tell you how serious the lawyers are concerning the issues raised. Look at the number of lawyers who attended and the facts that came out after speak for themselves. I do not need to add anything to it.

People say lawyers went too political, that the issue of the federation was a political issue and not within the realms of legal issues.

There is nothing in life that does not touch on the law. Every aspect of life touches on law; once there is an abuse, the lawyer comes in, and hence there is nothing that is out of the lawyer’s profession. When you talk of federalism, it is a form of government and government is made up of laws. If anyone says we went out of the law, honestly speaking; we respect that opinion and allow the person to feel that way. Everything that was said in Bamenda was within our functions.

It is getting close to a month after that conference, how far have you gone to draw the consciousness of the powers that be?

Well, what we have done is that we have come out with the resolutions; we shall have an assessment meeting. As of now, it is unwise to say what has been done and what has not been done till the corps comes back to assess what has been done.

Was the federation issue just used as a bait to draw attention to the legal matters or were you people really convinced about the federation issue. Let may say that more than 700 lawyers meet in Bamenda and came out with resolutions which they are bent on seeing their realisation within a reasonable time frame. If there was nothing serious we would not have displaced ourselves from the four corners of the country to come out with the resolutions. Get it clear, resolution number one to the last are very important to us.

These resolutions have been taken, now, if Government does not atone to those demands what do you do?

It is still left for the corps, like I said earlier, there is a reasonable time that has been given and that reasonable time is for the lawyers to come back, assess the situation and seek new directives.

You must read in the media the reaction of a prominent lawyer, Barrister Tabetando who is now Senator who is quoted as saying lawyers are manipulating public opinion, what is your take on that?

If I have to react to it, I would say that with utmost respect to the Honourable Senator, as a senator, he should wait for debates in the Senate.

If he comes out in public to make such statements, I wonder what he will have to say if the matter gets to the Senate. As of now I know that he is a business man, mixing it with the law profession and politics so with the three caps I think he is manipulating the caps to suit his own purposes. He was not in Bamenda, he does not know what happened in Bamenda. That opinion to me is that of a businessman and politician and not a lawyer.

Let’s look into the grouses you people advance; the harmonisation which you say should be halted has been going on for years and some signatories to that memorandum voluntarily accepted it and worked in commissions in Yaounde, how comes now that within the corps these same people are ruling against it.

General opinion supercedes individual opinion. There might be individuals who stood for harmonisation but now generally harmonisation does not help the common law course. There is nothing wrong agreeing on something today and disagreeing over it the next day when you discover that it does not represent your aspirations when you agreed. It is human nature and change is what everybody wants. We instead applaud those who stood for harmonisation yesterday and now rallied behind us that it is harmful to the practice of the common law and the well-being of the citizens of the Northwest and Southwest Regions when it comes to the application, interpretation and implementation of the law.

So how negative is the CPC to the Anglophone culture?

This is a lesson that can take us two hours.

Just give us some highlights

Ok, in the Common Law System you are presumed innocent till proven guilty and this goes with a lot of legal implications. Pre-detention trial is an exception and not a rule. But when it comes to the CPC, all of these are written down but the interpretation and implementation by the judges and magistrates is instead civil law inclined. Today, we have people who are undergoing 2-3 years pre-trial detention; in the SW and NW, 70% of the inmates are those awaiting trial, not convicted. In a purely common law system, it is an aberration. Secondly, the interpretation is now civil law oriented in that you try somebody in absentia and sentenced him to death, under the common law to try somebody in absentia is negative law. Now, in the same application of the CPC, it is possible to try an accused person who is present without the presence of the complainant. When it comes to interrogation, 90 % of statements recorded now used in courts in the NW and SW are in French. It is said that Cameroon is bilingual but the bilingualism does not apply to investigators, interrogators etc. In fact the CPC it is a useless document.

Some people have tried to reduce this your fight to one of bread and butter, what do you have to say?

Like I said, everybody is entitled to his own opinion but if I must answer the question you have to know that Cameroon has an average lifespan of 50, some of us have a few years to reach 50, some have crossed 50, to say that it is a question of bread and butter, it would be unfortunate. It is a question of heritage, a culture, a legacy that was bequeathed on our people.

Some observers have been a little bit circumspect knowing that something like this happened with Anyangwe, Elad and Munzu but which turned out to be a long shot, how is this going to be different this time around?

Every aspect of life has its own advantages and disadvantages. The actions taken by the learned professors, Anyangwe, Munzu and Elad culminated to what we have today as the SCNC. The SCNC is there playing its own role, we cannot say that they are not impacting on the society. There are many things happening now due to their pressure. What we did on May 9, 2015 in Bamenda make us stand as a foundation; it is not for us to carry it till the end; definitely there will be a relay baton. Some of us will wither out and others will come in; it is in the future that we will know whether what we did on May 9, 2015 was worthwhile. Definitely if all hands are put on deck, nobody will regret that meeting and its resolutions.

As an individual, have you been expecting such a move?

Well as an individual I have been in the struggle for quite some time; Personally, I took the University of Buea to court to challenge the admission procedures which I considered unfavourable to Anglophone applicants. I attended BGS Buea and I went through a bilingual system and I know the strong points of the Anglophone system of education and know same in the Fancophone system of education and when I saw the admission procedures where Anglophones were denied the right to gain admission to the University of Buea because of lack of O-Level English and the fact that Francophones were given the opportunity to have an intensive English class for six weeks and have direct admission to Buea, I cried foul; And at the time, admissions were not uniform. The Francophones were coming into school when the Baccalaureate results come out; about early July meanwhile the Anglophones had to register after 20 August when the A-Levels come out. The Francophones would come and take choice departments and since there was delimitation in admission, by the time Anglophones came in they were advised to take up their second and third choices; my action was dismissed but today the University of Buea has undergone some reformation. I have been in this for quite some time and I was happy because it was no longer an individual fight but a collective one. We can count over 95% of Anglophone lawyers following this course and we think the plight of the English-speaking Cameroonian will no longer be the same again after May 9, 2015.

You just handed over the baton of command at the helm of FAKLA, what FAKLA have you left over?

I have left behind a very vibrant FAKLA. When I had the first mandate in 2010, the number of electors was 68 and we had a potential membership of over 300 lawyers. On the day I was handing over, we had a total number of 286 registered voters with a potential membership of over 450 lawyers. You can see progressively that from the day I took over to the time I handed over, I am leaving behind a very vibrant association, a proactive association and I am happy with the new leadership. For now I can only say kudos to the new FAKLA executive.

Let’s close with politics; we know you are the secretary of the Tiko Electoral District of the SDF, a party which recently celebrated its quarter of a century; what do you think the SDF should concentrate on to achieve the mission it had in the beginning?

The SDF has to try as much as possible to bring everyone on board You are talking about reconciliation which was announced but nothing seems happening.

It was announced and our prayer especially for those of us at the grassroots wish that the reconciliation is carried till the end and that the fine brains that were there are brought back to help us achieve the goals that were set up in 1990. Every political party has an ambition to govern; for us to govern, we need a big following and we would want to take over the presidency in 2018. As a grassroots member of the part, my earnest wish is that anything that will stop us from attaining that objective should be shelved aside and anything that will help us attain that goal is brought in because that is the greatest aspect of politicking.