By Ayah Paul Abine
We are just back from Buea Central Prison. Mola Njoh Litumbe, accompanied by Ayah Paul Abine, Mami Mbiwan, a barrister, a man of God and a host of local SCNC leaders, went there for a visit of solidarity to a detained SCNC leader, Oben Maxwell.
From the horse’s mouth, Oben Maxwell went to Buea on January 29, 2014, on a purely social trip. As he planned to be in Buea for four days, he took along copies of Ernesto Che Guevara’s book on urban guerrilla which he had downloaded from the internet so as to while away time reading during the trip. At the end of the safari, Oben decided to call on someone he had never met but who had been chatting with him on the phone. After chatting with the person, Oben was on his way from Mautu village when his host stopped over to introduce him to some youths at some off-licenced premises.
Taking advantage of the situation, Oben educated the youths on the ideals of SCNC. He took for a joke when the publican (the woman running the premises) told him she would have him and the entire group arrested. Oben travelled back to the motor park, secured his seat on a bus bound for Yaounde, and was on the bus, waiting for departure. Two policemen in civilian clothes came up to him and asked Oben to alight from the bus for a chat. After listening him out as to his presence in Buea, the two policemen left Oben momentarily only to return with reinforcements and led him away, claiming that the SW Governor wanted to meet him. The police instead took Oben to the police station and locked him up incommunicado, after searching his bags.
Days later, he was taken to the Procureur General and then to the Buea Central Prison. All this time, Oben had not as much as been told what his offence was. Weeks crawled by and Oben was taken from the Buea Central Prison some day at 4 AM to an unknown destination. He ended up finding himself before some army officer said to be of the military tribunal in Yaounde. The officer asked him two questions, one of them being whether Oben had ever operated a gun. When Oben answered the question in the negative, the officer wondered aloud why they should be troubling Oben. The officer digressed from the topic to dwell on football in Cameroun. Curiously, Oben ended up in Kondengui Prison later in the day. Some 26 days later, he was taken back to the Buea Central Prison; then to the military tribunal in Buea. Some officer alleged that Oben had been preaching secession, civil war, armed insurrection, and planning to disrupt Biya’s visit to Buea. Without allowing Oben to say whatever in his defence, the officer ruled that Oben would be in prison custody for a year, renewable.
It would be noted that all along Oben was without legal counsel. His family and SCNC now briefed counsel who lodged an appeal against the order of the Buea Military Tribunal. The Court of Appeal has since ordered the military tribunal to forward to the court the records of proceedings all in vain. Rather the tribunal in manner most preposterous has now started hearing a case against Oben… While the case before the Buea Court of Appeal is stalled, the one before the military tribunal is equally stalled on the flimsy ground that the Yaounde military tribunal should make available its records of proceedings to the tribunal in Buea. And of course no such records there are! ...
In the meantime, the military are busy twisting Oben’s arm to find out whether Ayah Paul and Fru Ndi are funding SCNC. They are particular about Ayah in that Oben recorded “Ayah’s boy” against one of his contacts as he did not know the name of the PAP Secretary whom he contacted in order to have access to Ayah…
During today’s visit, SCNC had lengthy exchanges with Oben Maxwell and resolved on the spot to take his case to national and international human rights bodies. In all, there were over a dozen SCNC members at the prison but only half were allowed to meet Oben. They were all stunned by Oben’s bustling health, and particularly his high-spiritedness. Before the delegation parted ways with Oben, Mola Njoh Litumbe assured Oben that what he is going through is nothing more than receiving the last kicks of a dying horse. The oppressors know they cannot make out a case as our cause is just, sparkling and clear. The worry is just that the oppressors are out for soft targets for the purpose of intimidating the rest, as Litumbe and Ayah have never minced words that there never has been any reunification, and so nothing can be more facetious and farcical than talking about secession when there never has been a whole…
God is in control!
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