Senator drags man to court for defamation

Hon Andrew Ote Mofa, Senator for Meme Division, Southwest and a Senior Customs Inspector, has dragged one Thierry Noumbie, Manager of one Ets Pavillion, to the Limbe Magistrate’s Court for defamation.

Senator Ote told the court on August 28, that he is accusing Noumbie of having soiled his image and name before the public in a complaint which he, Noumbie, on June 19, 2013, wrote to the Governor of the Southwest, Bernard Okalia Bilai.

In the said complaint, Ote told the Limbe court that Noumbie asked the Governor to immediately sanction him and indicated that he, Ote, as a pioneer Senator in Cameroon, was a bad example.

Ote and Noumbie share a common boundary at some land at Karata Quarters in Limbe. Noumbie, in his complaint, insinuated that the Senator had sent some persons, one Adeline Ote, who came along with some persons Noumbie referred to as thugs and allegedly removed or altered the positions of some boundary pillars along the contested boundary line between Noumbie and Ote.

Noumbie wrote to the Governor and copied the Divisional Officer of Fako, among others, to immediately call Ote to order. He insinuated in the complaint that Ote was not a good example of a Senator.

He went forth to state that Ote was hatching probable plans to destabilise or ‘terrorise’, as he puts it, the Reunification celebrations. Noumbie went further to tag the Senator as a tax evader, a corrupter among other inanities which Ote considered to be injurious to his person and reputation.

“I think that being a politician; my intention is simply to clear my name. What he did was just to frustrate my political career,” the Senator told the court. Senator Ote went further to tell the court that what Noumbie wrote in his complaint to the Governor were mere fallacies concocted with the sole aim of damaging his image.

He denied ever having any plans to destabilise the Reunification celebrations and insisted that he was not a violent person and did not even have the kind of body build to perpetrate acts of violence, if he wanted to.

“I have never been a violent person. My physique does not even permit me to be one,” Ote told the court.

“I just want the public to know that I remain the same simple Ote as I was before the said complaint. I do not use thugs to protect me nor do I move with body guards. I am a simple person who even goes by public transport when travelling. Like this morning, I came to court by public transport,” Ote added.

He was being led by Magistrate Ndze Ewane as the State Prosecution Counsel and Barrister Stanislaus Ajong as the Civil Prosecution Counsel.

“I am claiming from him a symbolic FCFA1. All I want is to clear my name,” he said.

But, in the cross examination, Noumbie’s Counsel, Barrister Collins Arrey sought to establish the fact that the said letter to the Governor was a “complaint” and not a letter as such.

He also tried to establish the fact that the issues raised in Noumbie’s “complaint” were not to defame as such because there was already an existing case before the court between Noumbie’s business enterprise, Ets Pavilion against one other business concern, Nzotha Enterprise, run by Hon Ote Mofa, where Pavilion accused Nzotha of using thugs to disturb the business of Pavilion.

Ote who is managing Nzotha, accepted he was aware of the said case. Barrister Arrey also asked to know if the Governor ever summoned Ote or took any action as per the Noumbie complaint. Ote said ‘no’ but insisted that the contents of the complaint had already gone viral as he was informed of it rather by one Oscar Baye and not even the Governor to who the complaint was addressed to.

Magistrate Theophilus Tatsi, who is presiding over the matter, adjourned the proceedings to when Noumbie shall be expected to defend himself against the charges of defamation.