Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
EKANE Family Insists On An Independent Commission Of Enquiry, To Investigate “The Exact Circumstances And Real Causes” That Surrounded The Death, As BIYA Reportedly Demanded. Family Told Gendarmerie Boss, That, They Would Not Collaborate With A Team Of Investigators, Comprised Of Persons From The Same Gendarmerie, In Whose Hands ANICET EKANE Died.
It is almost two months after opposition leader and National President of MANIDEM Party, 74 year old Anicet Georges Ekane, on the fateful day of December 1, 2025 died in Gendarmerie custody, precisely at the Military Medical Centre of the National Gendarmerie in Yaounde, Cameroon. A Government Statement that was issued on the same day informed both the national and international communities, that President Biya had ordered that an investigation be immediately opened, “in view to clarifying with precision and objectivity, the exact circumstances and real causes surrounding the death”.
But since then, the anxious national and international communities have not heard anything again from the Government, about the investigation.
Union For Change
It would be recalled the Douala based politician, Anicet Ekane, was one the two opposition leaders that in September 2025, created a political platform, Union For Change, that brought together a number of political parties and civil society organizations, to support the candidacy of Issa Tchiroma Bakary, National President of FSNC and former member of the Biya government, for the October 12, 2025 presidential election. It should as well be recalled that within 48 hours after polls closed in the October 12 presidential election, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, from his home in his native Garoua, declared himself the winner of the election. He and his supporters said the declaration was based on authentic results they obtained after vote counting at polling stations across the country, in line with Article 113 of the Cameroon Electoral Code – Law No. 2012 / 001 of 19 April 2012.
Anicet Ekane was later arrested by the Gendarmerie in Douala without any charge on October 24, 2025, together with the Co – Leader of the Union For Change, Djeukam Tchameni, and whisked off to the nation’s capital, Yaounde, where they were detained at the Secretariat of State of the National Gendarmerie commonly known by the French acronym, SED. It should be noted that SED is the headquarters of the National Gendarmerie. The National Treasurer of MANIDEM, Madam Titchio Florence Aimee, a teacher at one of the Government secondary schools in Douala, was also arrested on the same October 24 by Gendarmes, first detained in Douala, and then later transferred to SED in Yaounde. No charge was immediately leveled against Ekane, Djeukam and Mme Titchio, whose lawyers were simply told that they would meet the Examining Magistrate at the Yaounde Military Tribunal.
The Issue Of Ekane’s Health Before, And After His Death
As regard the health situation of Anicet Ekane, it was no secret that he had been in poor health for quite sometimes, and last left the hospital not long before his arrest. Anicet Ekane in fact had a private Oxygen Extractor which became a part and parcel of him. The artificial respiratory apparatus which was recommended by his doctors was always handy, in case of need, or when he had any malaise.
Meanwhile when Ekane was arrested and taken to Yaounde, the MANIDEM Party in a communiqué that was issued on October 26, 2025 and signed by Paul Jaures Tina, a member of the Political Bureau of the party, said Ekane’s health situation degenerated, following the poor condition of the journey from Douala to Yaounde, which the party said took some five hours, and worst still in a vehicle that lacked the basic conform. Following Ekane’s deteriorating health situation, he was moved from SED to the Military Medical Centre of the National Gendarmerie, still in Yaounde.
One of the major requests or pleas that Ekane and his lawyers made a number of times during the period he was at the Military Medical Centre of the National Gendarmerie, was that he should be moved to the Yaounde Central Hospital, which was better equipped, and thus could better handle health problem. But the pleas received no favourable response. It is not clear as to which authority was supposed to take such a decision. But ironically enough, when Ekane died at the Military Medical Centre of the National Gendarmerie in Yaounde on that fateful December 1, 2025, his corpse was taken to the mortuary of the Yaounde Central Hospital.
The refusal to grant Ekane’s repeated request that he be moved to the Yaounde Central Hospital for better medical attention, is one of the points that Ekane’s family, is using to argue that though he was patient, he would likely had lived longer, if his appeal was granted that he be moved to the Yaounde Central Hospital, to seek better medical attention.
The Personal Oxygen Extractor
Meanwhile, when Ekane was at the Military Medical Centre in Yaounde, he and his lawyers, Barrister SIMH Emmanuel and Barrister Hippolyte T.B MELIi, repeatedly raised the issue of his Oxygen Extractor. The apparatus was in his vehicle that the Gendarmerie took on the day he was arrested in Douala and whisked off to Yaounde. The Oxygen Extractor was left behind in Ekane’s vehicle that was at the premises of the Gendarmerie Legion.
Barrister Hippolyte Takouang Meli, one of the lawyers of Anicet Georges Ekane, actually addressed a correspondence dated November 15, 2025, to the Littoral Legion Commander of the Gendarmerie, on the issue of Ekane’s Oxygen Extractor. In the correspondence, Barrister Meli, expressed disappointment to the Legion Commander, that their client, Anicet Ekane, was being deprived of his Oxygen Extractor, which he asserted, “is an important treatment apparatus, necessary to maintain our client alive”.
Meanwhile, a few days before Ekane passed away, Barrister Meli, announced in a social media post that some gendarmes finally brought the Oxygen Extractor to Ekane at the Military Medical Centre, and asked him to sign a ‘decharge’, which he did. However, Ekane and his lawyers decided that the artificial respiratory apparatus should better be taken to some medical officers outside the Military Medical Centre for examination, for his personal security. It is not clear whether Ekane had started using the Oxygen Extractor before his death. Whatever the case, the long period of time that, it took for Anicet Ekane’s Oxygen Extractor to get to him in Yaopunde, is the major element that his family is using to press on with the allegation that his death was precipitated. The family insists that Ekane Oxygen Extractor was confiscated by the Littoral Gendarmerie Legion. Sources at the Littoral Gendarmerie Legion have however rejected the accusation as spurious.
Gov’t Promised Immediate Investigation
Meanwhile, it would be recalled that when the shocking news of the dead in Gendarmerie custody of an opposition leader, Anicet Ekane, hit the country like a bombshell in the fateful morning of December 1, 2025, the Ministry of Defence under which the National Gendarmerie falls, rapidly issued a communiqué a few hours later, signed by the Head of the Communication Service at the Ministry, Navy Captain ATONFACK GUEMO CYRILLE SERGE. Suffice to say the communiqué ended with a declaration that in conformity with the procedure in force at the Military Medical Centre of the National Gendarmerie, an investigation was immediately opened to establish with precision, the circumstances under which Anicet Ekane died,
The Minister of Communication, RENE EMMANUEL SADI, who doubles as the Government Spokesperson, also issued a Government Statement on the dead in custody of the veteran opposition politician, Anicet Georges Ekane, on that same December 1, 2025. “As a matter of fact, the Government hereby informs national and international opinion that an investigation has been immediately ordered by the Head of State, with a view to clarifying with precision, and objectivity, the exact circumstances and real causes surrounding the death”, the Government Statement ended.
Diplomatic Missions In Yaounde
It would be recalled as well, that the Office of the European Union Delegation in Yaounde, the British High Commission in Yaounde, as well as a number of other diplomatic missions in Yaounde, issued releases on the shocking death of the opposition leader, Anicet Georges Ekane, in Gendarmerie custody. All also said they were looking forward to the report of the Commission of Enquiry, that the Government announced. But up till date, the public has not heard anything again from Government, about the investigation, not to talk of the report.
Ekane Family Insist On Independent Commission Of Enquiry
Meanwhile as regard the investigation, the last time the Ekane family in Douala heard about it was on December 23, 2025, when the widow of Late Anicet Ekane (Mrs Ekane nee SOGUE Jeanne Edwige), and a few other family members, received summons to report at the Littoral Gendarmerie Legion in Douala on December 24, 2025 at 10 am, in connection to investigation that was ongoing, on the death of Anicet Ekane. They did not show up.
Rather, the lawyers of Anicet Ekane, that became the lawyers of the Ekane Family after his death, addressed a correspondence to the Secretary of State in charge of the National Gendarmerie, ETOGA GALAX YVES LANDRY. It was stated that the correspondence was also for the attention of the Inspector General No. 3 of the National Gendarmerie, Colonel NCHOURUPOUO ISSIAKA, who was heading the Commission of Enquiry, as well as other members of the Commission.
Suffice to say in the correspondence that was signed by Barrister Hippolyte T. B. MELI, the lawyers of Ekane Family told the Secretary of State in charge of the National Gendarmerie, that to the Family, it was out of question that the National Gendarmerie in whose hands Anicet Ekane died in suspicious or questionable circumstances, should be the same to carryout out the investigation to determine the real causes and exact circumstances of the death, as President Biya demanded. The Ekane Family called on the National Gendarmerie to stay off the investigation. The Ekane Family was firm that they will accept nothing short of a veritable Independent Commission of Enquiry, to carry out the investigation. This thus meant that if the Government insisted and went ahead with the investigation by the Gendarmerie, the Ekane Family would not accept or recognize the report of the Commission.
Autopsy Report
It should as well be noted that the Ekane Family had through their lawyers early last month (December 2025) also made it clear to the authorities, that they would not accept the report of the autopsy that was conducted on the corpse of Anicet Ekane, without their representative. The Ekane Family through their lawyers did inform the authorities, that they would be represented during the autopsy, by a medical expert in the domain that they had chosen. But the autopsy was hastily conducted by two doctors designated by the authorities, in the absence of the medical expert that had to represent the Ekane Family.
Meanwhile from all indications, the Biya Regime is in serious difficulties in this issue of Late Anicet Ekane. In similar situations, the regime often uses intimidation, manipulation, corruption or blackmail to get the family concern to yield to the way the regime wants things done, and wants things to go.. But the Ekane Family, as well as well as militants of MANIDEM, which is one of the authentic factions of the UPC, are not people that especially in a case like this can yield to intimidation, corruption, manipulation or blackmail.
