Journey of no return

Bar, Bonu Innocent

Lawyer Bonu Innocent retires to Bambui
By Ayukogem Steven Ojong in Yaounde
The body of renowned, fearless and militant barrister and advocate, Bonu B. Innocent would be buried on Tuesday 10 June 2014, in his native Bambui village in Mezam Division of the North West region.
    According to the funeral program that was communicated to us, Barrister Bonu’s remains would be removed from the Buea Hospital Mortuary on Monday 9 June 2014, and taken in procession to the South West Appeals Court in Buea for judicial honors.
    From the Buea Court premises, the funeral procession will head for the deceased’s residence in Limbe for the 1st public viewing. Then at 5.30pm, the body would be taken to the Liberty Law Firm (Bonu’s law office) in Mutengene, for the 2nd viewing. A funeral mass will follow at 8.00pm still at the premises of the Liberty law farm.
    Barrister Bonu’s body will leave the South West region for Bamenda in the North West region at exactly 10.30pm, Monday. It will receive judicial honors at the North West Appeals Court in Bamenda, at 8.30am Tuesday.

    The funeral procession will leave the Bamenda court premises straight to Bambui where the “etang-ti moh manyang”, as Barrister Bonu referred to him self, would be buried.
    Bonu Innocent succumbed to illness on 17 April 2014 at the CNPS Hospital in Yaounde. He travelled to Yaounde to join other colleagues in correcting the scripts of the entrance examinations into the Cameroon Bar Association.
    An accomplished and highly respected advocate in his own right, Barrister Bonu was member of the Cameroon Bar Council and the representative of the Bar President (Batonnier) in the South West region.
    A multi-talented and multi-dimensional persona, Bonu Innocent was once a journalist and football manager. He co-founded the once famous Cameroon Life Magazine and was sole proprietor of the Victoria Shooting Stars football club (it was also popularly called come no go football club) in Limbe. He was also a successful businessman, who owned the lone bakery in Cameroon’s OPEC city, Limbe. Bonu als took interest in politics and was an active and militant supporter of the leading opposition SDF party.
    Over and above, Bonu was a militant barrister and advocate. His talent as a lawyer was sublime; and his reputation in the legal practice quickly grew beyond borders. He enjoyed the same popularity in Cameroon and Nigeria where he did his legal studies, like in the USA and France where some of his biggest clients came from.
    Quitting the scene at the prime age of 56, Bonu’s departure has created a big vacuum in the Cameroon Bar Association and the Fako Lawyers Association FAKLA in particular.