Biya seizes passports of sacked ministers

Some former members of the Biya government fired in what has been largely described as October 2 cabinet recycle have been asked to surrender their passports to national security.

A government official told The Journal, however, that the seizure of the passports does not mean the affected ministers are suspects of embezzlement or stolen government funds and are being prevented from escaping to find refuge abroad. “They will either have back their passports as soon as they are audited or sent to jail if their accounts in their various ministries are questionable,” our source said.

He noted that even some sitting ministers who are under investigation will equally not be allowed to travel out of the country, as their passports too have been seized. The Prime Minister, we gathered, insisted the 2013-2014 accounts of the Arts and Culture ministry be audited, and that the passport of the former minister, Ama Tutu Muna who was not among the supposed list of 16 ministers initially shortlisted for auditing, be seized.

Some of the ministers under investigation have known cases of embezzlement and had earlier been summoned to appear before the Special Criminal Court in Yaounde for questioning. The dismissed Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Lazare Essimi Menye falls within this category. Essimi Menye was summoned to appear before the court earlier on January 13 this year. He rather showed up later at the ministry of justice and claimed he was not aware of the summons.

Menye was allegedly involved in the embezzlement of some 9billion FCFA while he served as Minister of Finance prior to his appointment to the ministry of agriculture on December 9, 2011. His name had repeatedly emerged in an embezzlement case of 50Millon FCFA from the Cameroon Tobacco Corporation which collapsed some years ago.

Ananga Messina, Minister Delegate in Charge of Rural Development at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, who served under Menye until last Friday, is said to have been deprived of her passport though she survived the cabinet reshuffle.

As for Louis Bapes Bapes, former Minister of Secondary Education, his passport, like those of some ministers, is said to have been seized a few days before the announcement of the new government. He had been summoned, grilled at the Special Criminal Court and sent to jail on March 24 last year. He was released 24hours later though investigations are still ongoing.

Pierre Titi, Former Director of Budget at the Ministry of Finance who was promoted to the post of Minister Delegate in the same ministry in 2011, is among the former ministers being audited. Though he has always featured in the list billionare ministers published in local tabloids, he has never been grilled by the judiciary.

Some of the sacked ministers whose passports have been reportedly seized include, Adoum Garoua, former minister of sports and physical education, Catharine Mbankang Mbock, former Minister of Social Affairs, Patrice Amba Salla, former Minister of Public Works and Emmanuel Mbonde, former Minister of Mines.

Sitting ministers who have lost temporal rights to their travel documents include Mebe Ngo’o, Minister of Transport, former Minister of Defence before last Friday’s decree, Abba Sadou, Minister of Public Contracts; Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa, Minister of Small and Medium Size Enterprise, Hans Nyetam Nyetam, former Secretary of State at the Ministry of Public Works, sacked last Friday alongside his minister.

Meanwhile, sacked External Relations Minister, Pierre Mokoko Mbonjo would be returning to his office at the CPDM headquarters, lodged in the Yaounde Conference Center. Mokoko, after being blocked from presenting his speech at the UN headquarters in New York, a few hours after he was sacked, returned to Cameroon and handed over office to the new minister, LeJeune Mbella Mbella.