Prof. Asonganyi opens up on 'murder' of Fru Ndi's wife

Tazoacha Asonganyi, former SDF Secretary General, has broken silence on rumours which went viral in 2005 that he killed the wife of the SDF National Chairman, Rose Fru Ndi.

Rose Fru Ndi, it should be recalled, suffered a cerebrovascular accident at a reception that was offered the Socialist Women International during a regional meeting in Yaounde. She was immediately rushed to Clinique Fouda in Yaounde and a few days later was evacuated to the University of Geneva Teaching Hospital where she died on April 24, 2005.

More than ten years after the unfortunate incident, Asonganyi who was SDF Secretary General when she collapsed and later died, has come out with a publication in which he states: “…I started getting incessant rumour that I had a hand in Mrs. Fru Ndi’s death since I sat opposite her at the reception that was held shortly before her accident…”

In his new book titled: “ Cameroon: Difficult Choices In a Failed Democracy” recently launched in Yaounde, Asonganyi recounts that: “…The Asapngu crisis, the 1999 Yaounde Convention, the Kale Motion, Fru Ndi’s illness saga and other petty issues created friction between the chairman and me in the party. All of a sudden, several happenings heightened this friction. The main one being the death of Mrs. Rose Fru Ndi…”

With regards to the death of Rose Fru Ndi, Asonganyi says in the book that he was wrongly accused of killing the SDF First Lady “…by blowing some mystical white powder into her eyes…” He says his accusers went as far as alleging that: “…I escaped to Europe to avoid the burial ceremony…”

“I took the rumour very seriously and thought that it was necessary to get the Chairman to know about the rumour that were reaching me…so I decided to send a handwritten note through Justice Nyo Wakai. When the note was handed to the Chairman, he considered it a scandal that I sent such a note to him. He behaved as if I was saying that he was the origin of the rumour, or probably he was saying that I was telling a lie about the rumour. In any

case, he photocopied and distributed copies of the note I sent to him to anybody who visited him and later behaved as if I was the one who distributed it.” Asonganyi writes.

He narrates in the book that a NEC meeting that followed the funeral of Fru Ndi’s wife was not only turned into a condolence visit but that he as the party’s scribe was tasked to act as the spokesman of the ceremony.

Hear him: “When I made the condolence statement, the Chairman stood up and said NEC members were hypocrites because they could not be stabbing him in the back and coming to pretend to pay him a condolence visit. He then moved towards me and held a piece of paper menacingly at my face, ordering me to take what I sent to him and read out to NEC members. I wanted to stand up and order him to move away from me but some other thoughts restrained me. So I decided to behave as if there was nobody around me. I ignored his presence. After repeating his order to me several times, each time thrusting the paper at my face, he stood there speechless, until he returned to his seat with the note in his hands…”

Asonganyi adds that as if that was not enough, Fru Ndi in another NEC meeting instructed the party’s legal advisers to formulate Count IV of a summons that was sent to him and which reads thus: “ In subsequent writings of yours, it emerged that you acted on rumour in holding that the Chairman accuses you of having killed his wife; thereby insinuating that within the leadership of the party, there are murderers; thereby conducting yourself in a manner that embarrasses the party, brings into hatred, ridicule and disrepute; offences provided for in Section 15 (b) (ii) and constituting anti-party activities that are punishable under Section 8.2 of the party constitution.”

As to why he was not present at the funeral of Rose Ndi, Asonganyi holds that he travelled to London; at the invitation of the Labour Party with the approval of Fru Ndi shortly after receiving the corpse of the chairman’s wife at the Douala airport and attending a funeral mass organized in Douala in her honour.

Still on the circumstances that led to the collapse of Fru Ndi’s wife and her eventual evacuation to Switzerland for treatment, Asonganyi writes: “When the Chairman was preparing to leave with his sick wife to Switzerland, I received many phone calls from ‘the presidency’ enquiring whether ‘Monsieur Fru Ndi’ would accept if money was offered him to evacuate his wife. I always told the anonymous caller that I did not know the answer to the question…I later heard that the Chairman had been informed of the decision to fund the evacuation of his wife. I was not officially informed by him that the regime was negotiating to give him money to evacuate his wife and I never mentioned to anybody that I was receiving calls from persons who said they were calling from the ‘presidency’. In retrospect, I now think that all the calls from the ‘presidency’ were a way of telling me that such an arrangement was on…”

Asonganyi says following the decision by the regime to sponsor the evacuation of Fru Ndi’s wife, he said at a conference/debate that the SDF was weak without money but Mutations newspaper misquoted him as saying Fru Ndi accepted money from government to evacuate his sick wife because the SDF was weak in front of money.

He says even after writing a rejoinder to Mutations which was published: “…indicating that he said the SDF was weak without money and not in front of money, Fru Ndi still went ahead to grant an interview in The Post saying: “…A good number of (SDF officials like Asonganyi) are still on the government payroll…An SDF party official who teaches in Mr. Biya’s University and earns his salary from the Biya government will tell me, CPDM scored us a goal by financing the evacuation of my wife…”

Going by Asonganyi, Fru Ndi’s interview with The Post: “was like my epiphany…Divorce time had come! I could not just stay there and watch the circus action that was being played out in the party, waiting to get swept in the vortex of such conspiratorial action. This is why after I read the interview, I considered the die cast. There was no need restraining myself in the secretariat of the SDF while all was going wrong around me. I was no longer ready to work with a man who seemed to be seeking to get to the helm of the state only to confiscate it. I was no longer ready to work with a man who constantly said he had no problem with you, while he had thousands of problems with you! A leader has to always state honestly and truthfully what is on his/her mind to get feedback and gain trust. In failingly to do so, Fru Ndi had lost my trust…”