Elections Of PCC Moderator And Synod Clerk Billed For Monday, November 18 In Buea (Part 1):

Truth House Urges Voters To Examine Their Consciences, And Cast Their Votes For The Right Candidates That Will Work For The Interest Of PCC

 Truth House Hints on the possibility of taking legal action for the elections to be annulled, if there are evidences of electoral malpractices

On Saturday, November 16, the Synod Committee confirmed the candidatures of Rev Miki Hans Abia and Rev Jongai Polycarp for post of Moderator, as well as that of Rev Ayuk Solomon and Rev Mokoko Elive for post of Synod Clerk.

All eyes in the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, PCC, at home and aboard, will on Monday, November 18, 2024 turned towards the Synod Office (PCC Head Office) in Buea, in the Southwest Region of Cameroon, where the final phase of crucial PCC Synod Elections will be holding. It will be the elections into the first two hierarchical positions in the PCC, which are the post of Moderator and that of Synod Clerk.  The elections come up within the backdrop of an unprecedented crisis in the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon.

The  crisis in the PCC sparked off 10 years ago over the controversial candidature of Rev Fonki Samuel Forbah for  the post of Moderator, and has degenerated in the last 10 years due to the  frequent allegations of  bad governance by the Fonki team, with series of scandals.  A few months before the Synod elections, a forum of some concerned key member of the PCC, dubbed TRUTH HOUSE, was created, to try to see that elections go the right way, or that the elections are properly handled, in order, to this time around, put the right persons at the top management level of the Church.

Truth House is in fact the initiative of one of the key members of the PCC, Victor EPIE NGOME (a senior journalist. The Truth House also known as PCC Rescue Team, has attracted hundreds of other bona fide  Presbyterians from all  walks of life, that  have all served the PCC for many years,  to come  onboard the platform. Some of the members have served as Elders in different congregations, some as heads of movements in the PCC, and some even as members of the Synod Exco Board of Trustees, and so on.

  Heads Of Departments / Presbytery Delegates

Worthy of note, that voters at the final phase of the PCC Synod elections that total over 100 are comprised of Heads of Departments and Presbytery Delegates. These are the people that will on Monday, November 18, 2024 decide on who will be the Moderator and Synod Clerk of the PCC for the next five years. It should be noted that in accordance with the Constitution of the PCC, the Moderator and Synod Clerk are separately voted, each for a five year mandate, renewable only once. Thus the maximum period that a Moderator as well as the Synod Clerk can serve in the PCC, is 10 years.   The outgoing Moderator, Rev Fonki Samuel Forbah, for example, was first elected in 2014, and re-elected for the second and last mandate of five years in 2019. Having served the maximum of 10 years, Fonki thus cannot run for another mandate, and so has to leave the office of Moderator.

The Heads of Departments and Presbytery Delegates who will vote for a new PCC Moderator and Synod Clerk on Monday, November 18, were all expected in Buea, yesterday (Saturday, November 16, 2024). That same Saturday, November 16, 2024, the Synod Committee of the PCC met in Buea and confirmed the candidatures of Rev Miki Hans Abia and Rev Jongai Polycarp for the post of Moderator, as well as the candidatures of Rev Ayuk Solomon and Rev Mokoko Elive for post of Synod Clerk.

Press Conference In Douala

Meanwhile, with barely a few days to the crucial PCC Synod elections, some members of the Truth House, or better still, the PCC Rescue Team, on behalf of the group, met in Douala where they granted a press conference.  To be precise, the press conference which had as venue the Conference Hall of Royal Palace Hotel, Bonaberi – Douala, held on Thursday, November 14, 2024, that is, four days before the Synod elections.  Members of the Truth House who were present at the Press conference, included VICTOR EPIE NGOME, CHIEF ADA KESI, NTUMFOR BARRISTER NICO HALLE, SESEKO TAKOR N., BARRISTER IKOME NGONDI, DR, HELEN NTANIFOR, and NWETI PATRICK FONGWO. DR ASSAM GEORGE, who was supposed to be present, and who was actually the member of Truth House that mobilized the media for the press conference, left Cameroon for India on the eve of the press conference. The journey had been planned well before the plan to hold the press conference on November 14 was fixed, and so the other members knew that   he would not be present in Douala on November 14., though he was given  the assignment to mobilize the media before leaving.

An Appeal To Consciences Of Heads Of Departments And Presbytery Delegates

Meanwhile the seven members of the Truth House that were all quite active at the press conference, explained that the main reason for holding the press conference a few days to the final phase of the PCC Synod elections, was to call on the Heads of Departments and Presbytery Delegates that will vote at the elections, to each examine his or her conscience before casting the ballots. The members of the Truth House sad  they were aware that the Church Hierarchy have been trying to manipulate the elections in order to put their stooges in office for their selfish interests, and also that  some of the pastors  that will vote at the Synod elections, have sold their consciences.

Nevertheless, the members of the Truth House said they were still urging all those who will vote at the Synod elections, to examine their conscience, and put the interest of PCC above everything else, while casting their votes. The Truth House nurtures the hope that after examining their conscience, the Heads of Departments and Presbytery Delegates will put the interest of the PCC above everything else, and vote for the right candidates for the offices of Moderator and Synod Clerk.

“We want to send a message to the people who will be doing the elections, to examine their consciences. We are trying to reach out to the consciences of the Presbytery Delegates and Heads of Departments that will vote for a new Moderator and a new Synod Clerk for the 2 million Christians  of the PCC, on the 18^th of November”, the Truth House members said.   They asserted that if the right persons are voted to the offices of Moderator and Synod Clerk, the healing process  will immediately begin in the crisis – ridden PCC.

Two Categories Of Candidates

Members of the Truth House at the press conference who did not mention any candidate for the Synod elections by name, however stressed on the fact that there are two categories of candidates for both the posts of Moderator and Synod Clerk. They said one of the categories of candidates is that of the right persons for the post of Moderator and Synod Clerk, who are Pastors that have over the years proven their worth, and will certainly work for interest of the PCC and not for selfish interests as the outgoing team have done in the last 10 years. They reiterated that the Truth House  has the conviction that   if the  rights candidates in the Synod elections are voted into office, the healing process will immediately start in the PCC, and PCC will hopefully come back as one family.

The members of the Truth House said on the other hand, there is a category of candidates for the post of Moderator and Synod Clerk of the PCC that have been handpicked by the outgoing Moderator. They explained that the outgoing Fonki team from the Synod Office, is unscrupulously and flagrantly doing everything to see that their candidates take over the post of Moderator and Synod Clerk, so that they will cover up the so many skeletons that they will be leaving behind in the cupboard.

  Free, Fair And Transparent Elections

The members of the Truth House said they were looking forward to see the Synod elections free, fair, transparent, and thus acceptable.  They were firm that if the Synod elections turnout not be free, fair and transparent, the election results will not be acceptable.  The members disclosed that the Truth House has a number of plans on the table, but that for now they are focusing on the Synod elections that come up on Monday, November 18.

As to what the Truth House will do if the Synod elections is rigged by Synod Office or hierarchy of the Church as is being feared, a very outspoken member of the platform, Barrister Ikome Ngondi, first disclosed to journalists at the press conference, that he earlier proposed that the Truth House should take legal measures to block the Synod elections from holding, until there was the guarantee in place that the elections will be free, fair and transparent. But he said other members of the Truth House did not buy his idea, preferring rather that they should give a chance for the elections to hold, and see what happens.

Possibility Of Legal Action If Synod Elections Are Rigged

However, Barrister Ngondi disclosed that one of the options they have on the table is that if after the November 18 elections they have concrete evidences that the elections were rigged, they will take legal action to see that the elections are annulled.  He explained that the annulment of an election, by the court, due to electoral fraud, is not something that must take place the same moth or in the same year. He recalled for example that in neighboiring Nigeria, a Governor was removed from office after spending two years, by a court ruling that he rigged the election that put him in office.  He thus warned that if the outgoing hierarchy of  the  PCC rig the November 18 Synod elections,  and  there is  the induction of those handpicked by the outgoing Moderator as the new Moderator and Synod Clerk, they should not be deceived that it is all over, for the Truth House will not condone it.

Corroborating Barrister Ikome Ngondi, another member of the Truth House, Nweti Patric0k Fongwo, said those people who are saying that the Truth House is washing the dirty linens of the PCC in public, do not understand what it means by PCC being a Protestant Church.

By Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)

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