Kondengui Welcomes Three New ‘Big’ Tenants
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Three Cameroonian public figures, including a former
minister, were jailed in Yaoundé for alleged financial malpractice in
connection with the anti-corruption operation “Epervier”, reports said
Thursday.
Louis
Max Ohandja, former secretary of state to the Minister of Public Works, in
charge of roads, Jean William Sollo, former GM of the Cameroon Water Utilities
Corporation, Camwater, and Bruno Bekolo Ebe, former rector of the University of
Douala, were placed on Wednesday evening in pre-trial detention in the
Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde, the reports said.
“They
are accused of financial embezzlement, but the amounts will not be known until
the judicial information has been opened,” explained an official of the Special
Criminal Court (TCS), the court that tries cases related to misappropriation
and embezzlement of public funds.
William
Sollo is reportedly charded with the alleged embezzlement of funds at Camwater,
where he was GM between 2012 and 2016.
Bekelo
Ebe and Ohandja are suspected of financial misconduct at Douala University. In
2014, the Budgetary and Financial Disciplinary Board, an official body that
investigates governance problems in public administrations and companies,
declared Bekolo Ebe accountable for 2.4 billion FCFA (3.7 million euros)
missing at the university.
The
former state secretary to the Minister of Public Works, Mr Ohandja, was the
director of a vocational school at the University of Douala before being
promoted to Minister.
A controversial operation
The
judicial operation “Epervier” to fight corruption in Cameroon launched in 2006
affected many former heads of public enterprises and former ministers.
A former
Prime Minister, Inoni Ephraim was sentenced in October 2013 to 20 years in
prison for “embezzlement of public funds” of more than 1.68 billion FCFA (2.56
million euros).
In
Cameroon, “Epervier” is controversial, with many perceiving it as a “political
purge” operation.
Former
government leaders like Marafa Hamidou Yaya, sentenced to 20 years in prison
for “embezzlement of public funds”, believe they are victims of political
settling of scores.
Yaya was
formerly a powerful minister of territorial administration (Interior) and a
former Secretary General of the Presidency.
He was
cited as a potential successor to Paul Biya notably in American diplomatic
telegrams leaked a few months before his arrest.
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