Buea sub-Division

Bakweri Village Chief jailed for 4-1-9, forgery
HRH Thomas Elinge Ndotoh Ekinde has been sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for obtaining by false pretense.
By Bamnjo Herman in Buea
The chief of Ewili village in Buea sub-division has been sentenced to two years imprisonment for false pretense, this, according to the judgment passed recently in the Buea Court of First Instance.
    The matter started on the 20th March 2015 when the complainant, one Dr. Emmanuel Apande, took to the witness box and stated that sometime in January 2014, Ndotoh collected five million FCFA from him promising to allocate him one hectare of land supposedly situated at the Ewili new layout in Molyko Banana.
    However, after several fruitless attempts to take possession of the land, Dr. Apande was told by the villagers of another village, Bwiteva, that the new layout in question belonged to their village and not to Ewili and that the land is even covered by a land certificate. They added that Ewili village was never a beneficiary of land surrender because their application for land had been suspended by the SDO on the 5thApril 2013.
    Brought before the Buea judge on 10 April 2015, Ndotoh with the assistance of his lawyers admitted that he effectively collected 5,000,000 FCFA from Dr. Apande as the first
installment for one hectare of land in the new layout situated at Molyko Banana. He claimed that the money was meant to help the village council to follow-up their file at the Ministry of State Property and Land Tenure in Yaoundé.             He said Dr. Apande had to pay a balance of 10,000,000FCFA before taking possession of the land. HRH Ndotoh pleaded with the court to give him some time to go through with his file at the department of lands, saying he was unable to allocate the land to Dr. Apande immediately because the minister has suspended all land surrenders in Fako division.

    Apart from the money he collected from Dr. Apande, it emerged that Chief Thomas Elinge Ndotoh was also charged for possession of fake documents and several identities. He had also deceived many other people and collected mony and other valuables from them promising to give them land. Many of this other victims have also been pursuing him for their money. 
    During the cross examination by Barrister Njifack,  Ndotoh admitted that his real names are Ndzie Thomas Ekinde and the names of his biological father are Ndzie Simon Edoh. It emerged therefore that the man who is posing as the chief of Ewili village has changed his names several times and is in possession of several identity cards.  It also emerged that he is not the beneficiary of any surrendered land because his application for land was rejected by the SDO and that he has been using a forged cadastral plan drawn from the Bwiteva cadastral site plan to extort money from people.
A witness in the matter, Mbake Javis Mbell, who is chairman of the Ewili village council, told the court that he was present with one Kulu Mondoa when Ndotoh collected money from Dr. Apande for land. He however stated that the money was meant to sponsor the processing of their land surrender documents at the lands department.
    He also stated that he gave a copy of the
SDO’s suspension letter to Dr. Apande when they met in court and told him that the said suspension was as a result of a boundary dispute with Lower Muea and did not concern their land surrender application.
    On the 05/06/2015, Ndotoh was present in court fully dressed in his traditional regalia when the court session began with the reading of the judgment. The Magistrate began by reading a lengthy summary of theentire trial in court and the report from the locus.
The magistrate
    then read the sentence by first of all stating that chieftaincy is an important institution and that chiefs should uphold exemplary conduct
in their community.
    She went on to state that Ndotoh by his actions has dragged the chieftaincy institution to mud but however, while taking into consideration his lawyer’s plea, she sentenced him for two years in prison and that failure to pay the court cost and the civil claim, he will serve another twelve months and two years respectively.
    The sentence was pronounced in the presence of two other chiefs who also had criminal matters in court.
    Immediately after the pronouncement of the sentence, Ndotoh was called again to the dock for two other cases in which he is charged with false pretenses. His lawyer pleaded ill health and the mental state of his client who has just been sentenced to secure an adjournment.
    This reporter caught up with Mr. Molua Patrick, Dr. Apande’s friend and representative who has a Power of Attorney to execute the civil claim and he had this to say: “On behalf of Dr. Apande who happens to have gone back to the USA, I wish to thank the Magistrate and the two Deputy State Counsels for their steadfastness and courage and to Barristers Ikomi Ngongi and Njifack Justin for their professionalism during this trial. I equally wish to extend my gratitude to the Chief of Bwiteva for his cooperation and exemplarity. As a Bakwerian, I feel much dishonoured to see that a notorious criminal like Ndotoh was made a chief and that for the past three years; he has been using the cover of this very noble institution to commit heinous crimes unperturbed despite all the complaints. His imprisonment does not only render justice to Dr. Apande and his other victims, but also to the millions of Bakwerians who still believe in the nobility of chieftaincy
institution. From the fore-going, I wish to urge the SDO to dethrone him
without delay”.