By DOH JAMES SONKEY IN YAOUNDE
Following the ongoing crisis that have been rocking the two Anglophones Regions in Cameroon for several months now and the indiscriminate arrest, abduction and detention of Anglophones, the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary who double as the Government Spokesperson have said all arrested and those on the run must face justice. Speaking recently in Yaounde during a press conference, the minister said those who were arrested and escaped from the hands of security forces have instead made their case more complicated because the government has put in place a special commission and network to trace their where about.
It should be noted that according to security statistics out of the eight escapees six have been apprehended and two are still on the run and the government is carrying out rigorous investigation concerning their where about. Reports from the security services indicate that one of them is a Journalist who goes by the name Quidia Eshu Thadius. The said journalist is said to have been apprehended on the line of his duties as he was gathering information and taking pictures pertaining to the uprising. According to another source, it is reported that the said journalist has also made Newspaper publications on the on-going crisis.
During a press conference in Yaounde recently, some journalists quizzed the Minister of Communication on the fate of journalist detained at the Yaounde Central Prison in Kondengui and he said all perpetrators of violence arraigned during the crisis must face the heavy hand of the law. He went further to explain that some of the “so called Journalists” were not on duty when they were apprehended by the police, claiming that ‘no one is above the law”. He was also questioned why arrested civilians should be tried in the Military Tribunal in Yaounde even when the said ‘crimes’ were allegedly committed in the far away North West and South West Regions, the minister said it is the decision of the government to decide where to judge the suspected criminals
It should be noted that Quidia Eshu Thadius and others were arrested on December 19, 2016 at the Misselele check point on his way from Douala by the Mobile Intervention Unit of the Police and taken to Limbe National gardamerie for interrogation where he was locked up for weeks under inhuman conditions and was transferred to Buea Central Prison due to pressure from some local journalism association and the population where they were transported to Yaounde by night. Since then his where about is not known as our sources says he jumped out from the military truck and vamoosed into the forest on the Douala-Yaounde highway though in poor health condition.
Many critics and Human Rights organizations have condemned government’s crackdown on the Anglophones and even media men and women who have dared to report on the crisis still ongoing in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon.
It should be noted that hundred of southern Cameroonians have lost their lives while others like Justice Ayah Paul Abine ,Dr Fontem, Barrister Balla, Mancho Bibisi and twenty five others are lavishing behind bars at the Yaounde Central Prison for charges such as secession, treason, act of terrorism, false information amongst others.