Bamenda emolument case remitted to legal department

This was the verdict rendered by the Special Criminal Court on April 30, 2014 in Yaounde.

The Special Criminal Court last Wednesday, April 30, rule to decline its jurisdiction to hear and determine the case between the State of Cameroon (Ministry of Justice) and the Former Registrar-in-Chief of the Bamenda Court of First Instance, Victor Tambang Mbang Menji.

The head of the Panel of Judges hearing the case, Mr Justice Bea Abednego Kala while delivering the verdict on the matter dealt essentially on the issue whether the court has the jurisdiction to entertain the matter or not. This was based on the fact that before the hearing of the matter, the defence counsel raised a preliminary objection stating that the amount of funds allegedly misappropriated by his client was not properly calculated by the examining magistrate.

They held that if it was properly done including taxes, the amount will be about FCFA 38 million. After three prosecution witnesses testified in the case as well as the accused testifying in his defence, evidence was before the court from which the amount allegedly misappropriated was calculated.

Taking into consideration the submission of the Legal Department represented by Advocate General, Wanki Richard, the court recognised that the examining magistrate erroneously calculated the amount of funds misappropriated to be over FCFA 67 million because the taxes paid were not deducted from the gross amounts on the emolument vouchers and also because some of the said calculation were based on speculation.

The court upheld the preliminary objection raised by the defence counsel as a fact, that the amount of funds allegedly embezzled was some FCFA 31 million. In the light of the finding that the accused allegedly misappropriated the sum of FCFA 31 million, the Special Criminal Court no longer have any jurisdiction to entertain the matter since Section Two of Law No 2012/011 of 16/07/2012 to amend Law No 2011/028 to set up the Special Criminal Court bestows jurisdiction to the court if the value of loss caused to the State is at least FCFA 50 million.

The court also looked into the legal issue raised by the defence counsel in which, they said, even if the accused misappropriated any money, there were not State funds because they had been taken out of the coffers of the State treasury and meant to be distributed to staff of the court. As such they considered it as money for staff in the court and not for the State. The court said since they were not going into the merit of the case to declare Victor Tambang guilty or not, they will leave that issue to be determined by the competent court.

The court in its final verdict declined jurisdiction and ordered that the case file be remitted to the Legal Department of the Special Criminal Court for transmission to the competent legal department for trial of the accused before the Mezam High Court. The court also ordered that the cost of the proceedings be assumed by the State treasury.

More so, the court noted that the accused who is already under preventive detention, should remain until it is decided otherwise by the authorities in charge of prosecuting him before the competent court.

By Brenda Y. Nchewnang-Ngassa