'CONAC agents’ arrested for duping Fako chiefs

Some three men, claiming to be agents of the National Anti-Corruption commission, CONAC,were arrested in Buea for trying to dupe the Chief of Bodouma Village in Buea Sub Division, Chief Francis Ngomba.

Talking to The Post, July 6, Chief Ngomba said the three men bashed into his palace two weeks ago and presented themselves to him as CONAC officials.

After presenting themselves, they brought out a letter and asked him to give them the reply after one week or else “I will be arrested and taken to Yaoundé.”
He said he replied the letter after one week.

“I replied the letter after one week through my lawyer, but my lawyer told me he doesn’t believe in the people because they wrote their names and telephone numbers behind. He told me the people are ‘fake’, but I did not believe him,”Ngomba revealed.

After the lawyer replied the letter, the people called him and said he was not supposed to write any letter to them. They asked him to hand their own copy of the letter directly to them. After calling him, the three men again came to his house, interrogating him on how he uses the community’s money and land.

“The only thing the people were telling me is that they have to take me to Yaoundé because they are working with CONAC,” he said.

According to Chief Ngomba, the men have visited him thrice. The first day they came was on Monday, second day on Wednesday and on Saturday they made him to understand that they were coming to take him to Yaoundé and everybody in the village knew that CONAC was coming to arrest him.

But when he contacted a law enforcement officer and he started investigating and called CONAC to find out if they have sent anybody for field work in Buea, they said no.

He called again and read the letter to them, but they still didn’t know the people in question and also said they have not signed any mission order since January on any name of Epale and Oloumo Chief Ngomba further explained that when the people came and presented themselves as being sent by CONAC, they told him that the population of Bonduma has written a letter to CONAC against him,“Iasked for the letter, but they did not present any.”

Asked if there was any letter written by the people of Bonduma,he answered in the affirmative.

“Two people cannot make up the population of Bonduma, if two people write a letter; it’s not the people of Bonduma.Through investigation, I learnt that some four persons wrote a letter,” he admitted.

Asked what the demands of the suspected conmen were, the Chief said:“They were asking me to explain how I use village money and share land. But I made it clear to them that I’m not the person keeping the money. They went to the bank where we havean account and pull out the historic; I can’t really tell how they managed to get it,” he averred.

Talking about the suspect conmen, the Chief said Epale, a retired Gendarme, lives in Limbe and the other two live in Douala, but the letter is written in Yaoundé and the stamp on it is from Bafang.

Before approaching Chief Ngomba, the three suspects are reported to have defrauded the Chief of Ngueme, FCFA 3 million on the same pretext.

Meantime, the case is at the level of the State Counsel while the ‘CONAC agents’ aredetained at the Buea Gendarmerie Brigade.