Operation Sparrow Hawk:

Kondengui Welcomes Four New ‘Big’ Tenants

By Innocent Kum in Yaounde

Atangana Kouna is presently at the SED

At least four former top government officials were last week arrested and detained at the Yaounde Kondengui maximum security prison.

            The four senior government officials including former water and energy minister, Basil Atangana Kouna, Louis Max Ohandja who served as secretary of state to the minister of Public Works in charge of roads, Jean William Sollo, former GM of the Cameroon water utilities company, CAMWATER and Bruno Bekolo, one time rector of the University of Douala were arrested separately by security operatives.

            All four personalities were grilled by investigators at the special criminal tribunal in Yaounde before being whisked off to the Kondengui detention facility.

            It remains unclear why the four officials were picked up but The Median understands that the move is not unconnected to allegations of financial malpractices.

            We gathered from sources at the Special Criminal Court, TCS, that the arrested individuals are accused of embezzlement, but the amounts allegedly swindled will not be known until the judicial process opens any time soon.

            Before his detention Friday, Basil Atangana Kouna had just been flown home from Nigeria earlier on Thursday, by elements of the interpol.

            Atangana Kouna had succeeded to escape to Nigeria despite a travel ban imposed on him and others by state security officials.

            As for Atangana Kouna , it is not clear what charges he will be facing, but there speculations that his arrest is connected to financial crimes he reportedly committed while he served as general manager of CAMWATER several years back before his appointment as minister.

            In 2016, it would be recalled that elements of the special unit of the judicial police attached to the special criminal court, SCC, had interrogated three ministers including Basil Atangana Kouna, then water and energy boss, over alleged fraud and embezzlement of public funds.

            The Median was told then that Atangana Kouna’s grilling then was predicated on alleged misuse of funds when he served as interim general manager of the defunct national water corporation, SNEC, and later as general manager of the Cameroon water utilities company, CAMWATER.

            It is not however known how much the ex-minster is accused of embezzling.