By Elah Geoffrey Mbongale
Security agents have arrested the Bishops driver; the night watchman and the cook and domestic servant who served the Bishop his last supper on the night he was last seen.
Suspense on the whereabouts of the Bishop was broken when his lifeless body was spotted at the river bed at about 7:30 am by a Malian Fisherman, and finally pulled out of the Sanaga River at about 11:00 am by a team of local fishermen, officers of the Navy and the National Fire Brigade that had been engaged in the research for more than 48 hours.
The body was spotted about 20 kilometers from the bridge at a portion of the river which is about one meter deep.
The convoy that accompanied the deceased body from Ebebda arrived the Yaoundé General Hospital Mortuary under tight security some two hours later amidst crowds that had assembled along the itinerary from Emana, through Etoudi, Santa Babara to the mortuary.
The Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the National Gendarmerie, Jean Baptiste Bokam and the Governor of the Centre Region, Naseri Paul Bea were part of the accompanying officials.
After the identification of the corpse by the Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, Mgr Piorro Pioppo, the President of the Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, Mgr Samuel Kleda, the Archbishop of Yaoundé, Mgr Jean Mbarga, the driver of late Bishop and his security personnel, the Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea led special prayers at the river banks shortly after the corpse was brought out from the river. Soon after the prayer session, local traditional authorities perfumed customary rites on the corpse.
Bishop Jean Marie Balla was declared missing on Tuesday 30 May, 2017, but his land cruiser jeep with registration plate number CE 9503V was found on the Ebebda bridge on Wednesday afternoon about 90km from Yaounde, with a note in the car, his ID card, driving license and car documents.
The handwritten note on the letter head of the diocese simply read “Je suis dans l’eau”, loosely translated into English as “I am in the water”.
The note found in the bishop’s car suggested he jumped into the river” and committed suicide by drowning, as no damage was done to his car which could indicate there was violence.