Director jailed for masterminding ‘419’ recruitment scheme

The Director of Human Resources at the Public Health Ministry, Simon Eballe Nzo’o is in Kondengui prison for alleged bribery and certificate forgery of about 25,000 youths into public service during the 2010 recruitment season.

Eballe who appeared before the Yaoundé High Court for a third time on March 10 has been in prison since January this year. He appeared in court with alleged accomplices, one Ndzie and Massa who are equally in pre-trial detention.

The accomplices are accused of forgery and usurpation of titles. The director was a member of the commission that was in charge of the recruitment process.

The trio and another suspect whose name we got as Yannick, currently on the run, had created a network in 2012 for fake recruitment of youths into the public service.

They lured their victims into believing that the government was looking for 7,000 more candidates to replace candidates who were not successful in the 2010 selection.

After waiting for about three years for the replacements to take effect, the victims who had each paid bribes ranging between 200,000 and 300,000 FCFA, decided to sue Ndzie who had issued out receipts for the payments.

At the court, Ndzie told the court he wasn’t acting on his own and that, he was assigned by Massa. Massa in turn revealed that the brain behind the deal was the Director of Human Resources at the Public Health Ministry.