NOWEFU Crisis: Chafah’s faction heads to court

The crisis rocking the North West Fons Union, NOWEFU have escalated as one of the factions led by erstwhile president Fon Chafah XI of Bangolang has dragged current president, Fon Teche Njei to court.

In a telephone chat with The Journal last night, Fon Chafah who doubles as permanent secretary of the Cameroon Traditional Rulers’ Council hinted that all the North West fons want is to get the court to stop Fon Teche from going ahead with his planned move to organize an extraordinary assembly to change the union’s constitution.

Fon Chafah warned that as per the union’s constitution, only a general assembly can vote to change the present NOWEFU constitution and not an executive meeting.

It should be recalled that wrangling and bickering first emerged when a handful of some of the union’s executive members led by Fon Teche met at the Bambui Fon’s palace on May 29 and resolved among other things to revise NOWEFU constitution.

But Fon Chafah, brandishing the union’s constitution, is arguing that only NOWEFU general assembly can vote for such a revision. The North West Fons, he told the Journal, are also appealing to the Mezam high court to stop Fon Teche from masquerading as NOWEFU president.

Fon Teche’s three-year mandate at the helm of NOWEFU, according to the union’s constitution, is supposed to have ended on March 16, 2015.

But Fon Teche has refused to summon an elective general assembly; insisting that his own version of the NOWEFU constitution gives him powers to organize an elective general assembly only on November 28, 2015.

Teche and some members of his bureau have, however, agreed that the next union’s president would be chosen from Donga Mantung division; owing to the rotary nature of the NOWEFU presidency. But Teche’s cronies say they have “empowered” him to manage the union up to the November 28 rendezvous.

Fon Teche avoiding summons

Meanwhile the counsel for the Chafah-led faction of NOWEFU that has dragged Teche to the Mezam High Court, Barrister Henry Kemende told the Journal that the senator has since been avoiding summons to appear in court on June 17.

He said when bailiffs first went to his Bamenda residence to serve him, Teche claimed that as Senator, he is covered by immunity and so cannot be dragged to court. But when he was corrected and lectured that the law does not stop any civil action against legislators, he said he would only accept the summons in the presence of his lawyers. He then took a rendezvous with the bailiffs for the following morning.

Going by Barrister Kemende, the bailiffs showed up at Fon Teche’s palace the following morning as was agreed but were told that he had left for Yaounde that morning as early as 5 a.m.

However, determined to serve him, they got a bailiff in Yaounde who until last night as we took to press had reportedly made all frantic efforts to serve Teche but to no avail. “Fon Teche has been evasive…but we must do everything possible to serve him one of these days, Kemende told the Journal.

Asked what they will do to serve the summons on the fon, Kemende noted that he could be served through the secretary general at the Senate.

All attempts to get Fon Teche react to claims that he was avoiding to be served proved futile as his phone rang for hours on end without him picking it.