Vice PM's wife, Boko Haram deal generates more controversy

Rumours making rounds in Yaounde centres around the file relating to the release of the wife of Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali and 16 other prisoners including 10 Chinese by the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

Local media reports say the presidency would have paid not less than 6 billion CFA francs to recover 27 captives kidnapped on July 27 in Kolofata and on the night of 16th to 17th May 2014 in Waza in the Far North.

L’hebdomadaire La Nouvelle, a French publication based in Yaoundé has reported that contrary to the sum of 3.2 billion CFA francs which the Cameroon government claimed to have spent on the Boko Haram deal, the Delegate General for National Security Martin Mbarga Nguélé did collect 6 billion CFA francs from the presidency to seek the release of Agnes Francoise Moukouri wife of Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali.

It may be reasonably suggested that Boko Haram is now a political establishment serving distinct interests in Nigeria and Cameroon. In Nigeria, it has never sought ransom for the many victims it has abducted.

In Cameroon, although officially classified as a nebulous or illusive enemy, it has turned abduction for ransom into a lucrative business involving senior government officials.

Cameroonians have every reason to believe, moreover, that as soon as a person is kidnapped in Cameroon, a kind of crisis committee is put in place in high places, with a host of CPDM gurus as intermediaries.

This was the case involving the release in December 31, 2013 of Father Georges Vandenbeusch through Hassan Lawan, described as a close associate of the President of the National Assembly Cavaye Yeguie Djibril.

However, our intelligence officer in Yaounde maintains the view that media reports against the Delegate General for National Security are the handiwork of the French company Thales who are fighting to get him sacked.

Martin Mbarga Nguele blatantly refused to renew the contract with Thales and some reports say he is about bringing a Spanish company to replace Thales.