Iya Mohammed faces court for embezzlement

Iya Mohammed, former director general of the Société de développement de cotton (Sodecoton) will be before court on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 to answer charges of embezzlement of public funds.

Following a mission of verification by CONSUPE, a report by the national anti-corruption Commission (Conac) and a preliminary investigation by the civilized judicial, the State of Cameroon incorporated civil party before the special criminal court (CHT).

The State, majority shareholder of Sodecoton claims 11 billion CFA francs from lya Mohammed as injury suffered by Sodecoton, during the 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 fiscal years through "various orchestrated fraud" by the then DG.

Thus in June 2013, a judicial investigation opened at the Special Criminal Court against the ex-DG of Sodecoton and a dozen of his colleagues.

Five grievances were levied against him; these cover the undue collection of salary-related benefits, leakage of stocks of oils, rebates, illegal expenditures for the benefit of cotton Sport de Garoua, payment of an inconsistent delivery and collection of compensation without any legal basis.

At the end of its investigation, the investigating judge retains sufficient charges against Mohammed lya for each of these five charges.

Iya Mohammed argued before the investigating judge, Evouh Ekanga that these elements of salary received by him was derived from a decision of the Board of Directors of April 19, 2002, which did not set the precise amount of his base salary.

The magistrate argued that water, electricity and housing allowances have been collected twice, i.e., in-kind and cash "since the DG lived at Sodecoton camp and naturally had water, electricity and other".