Briefs

Over 40 years of music:

EkambiBrillant decorated by Biya

The artiste was elevated to the dignity of Commander of the National Order of Valour, on Monday, 20 June 2016, in Douala

                Ace makossa composer, arranger, singer and producer, EkambiEkambi Louis Brilliant alias MotaMuenya (better boy), has been honored with a medal by the president of the republic, Paul Biya.

                Ekambi was on Monday, 20 June 2016, awarded the medal of commander of the Cameroon order of valour. He was decorated on behalf of the head of state, by the governor of the Littoral region, IvahaDiboua.

                Affixing the medal on Ekambi’s chest, governor Diboua said the decoration was in recognition of Ekambi’s sterling contributions to the development of Cameroonian music and culture. He added that the purity of Ekambi’s songs have helped in no small way to preserve the originality of the Makossa genre.

                “Ekambi music is refined and original; it also transcends epochs,” governor IvahaDiboua said, praising Ekambi for his unique voice and his exquisite dress sense.

For his part, Ekambi thanked Cameroonians for their support, and president Biya for the recognition which he described as humbling and gratifying.

Papillion dragged to court for false pretense

Famous Makossa artiste, Din Din Ferdinand alias PapillonMotaNguinya was on 21 June 2016 brought before the judge of the Littoral Appeals Court on charges of abuse of confidence and false pretense. The Makossa composer-singer was dragged to court by one ZakariaAbakarTerio, a Chadian national, who is accusing Papillon of defrauding him of the sum of 550.000 FCFA in complicity with another crook, MatalaDiallo.

                During the initial trial at the Ndokotti Court of First Instance, Papillion was found guilty and sentenced to four months imprisonment and to pay damages to Zakaria amounting to twenty eight million five hundred and fifty fcfa (28.550.000), apart from court charges of 90.000 frs and a fine of 1.427 million FCFA.

                Papillion’s lawyers have appealed the judgment. But this was not before he was kept behind bars for four days and later released on bail.

Two Vision4 TV workers jailed

Two workers of the Yaounde-based Pan-African TV channel Vision4 are presently languishing in the Kondengui maximum security prison on charges of forgery and use of fake documents.

                Patrick Sapack and David Eboutou were arrested on 17 June 2016 at the head office of Vision4 in Nsam, Yaounde, after their employer, Jean-Pierre AmougouBelinga filed a complaint against them at the judicial police headquarters inYaounde.

                AmougouBelinga in his complaint accused his two collaborators of blackmail, violation of the obligation of reserve, forgery and defamatory remarks against the president of the republic of Congo.

                But this was after the two consultants had accused their boss of failing to pay them out of station allowances and other bonuses for the special mission they made to Congo during the build-up to the presidential elections in that country.

                The two men said they did not understand why their employer could not pay what they were due even after he was paid over 700 million fcfa by the Congolese government for the coverage of the presidential election.

                Reports said Jean Pierre AmougouBelinga’s annoyance with the two workers was all the more because they divulged on social media the amount he received from the Congolese president.

                Amougou claimed he had paid the workers all that they were due. But the workers said this was less than the truth.