Wouri SDO Quietly Drops Matter Against The Board Chair Of REDHAC, Barrister Alice Nkom

His hierarchy in Yaounde seems to prefer the option of Madam Nkom being dragged to the Yaounde Military Tribunal

 Background to the standoff between Barrister Alice Nkom and MINAT, which has now moved to SED, and probably  also to the Judicial Police  

Things started with the ministerial order that the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, signed on Friday, December 6, 2024 suspending a total of 5 Non – Governmental Organizations, NGOs, in the country, for a period of three months. The suspension was based on an allegation that the five NGOs received a total of 16 billion francs CFA from unknown sources and for unknown purposes. The NGOs were accused of receiving illicit and exorbitant funding, as well as for alleged lack of compliance with the legislation regulating activities of non – profit making organizations. It should be noted that the most prominent, if not the only prominent among the five suspended NGOs, was of course the Central African Human Rights Defence Network, commonly known by the French acronym, REDHAC. Even Human Rights Watch confirmed that.

Meanwhile, the impression that was initially given to the media was that it was the National Agency for Financial Investigation commonly known in the country by the French acronym, ANIF, which discovered that the five NGOs had received a total of 16 billion FCFA, and informed the Ministry of Territorial Administration. It is the ministry that grants authorization to NGOs and civil society organizations, to carry out their activities in the country.

But ANIF was not present at the press conference which the Minister of Territorial Administration granted in Yaounde on Monday, December 10, 2024 on the issue of the five suspended NGOs. Also, ANIF has so far not said a word on the issue. So there has been the question as to how the head of the Ministry of Territorial Administration commonly known by the French acronym, MINAT, came about the information on the alleged total sum of 16 billion francs CFA received by the 5 NGOs.

 Enforcement Of The Ministerial Order

Meanwhile also on that Monday, December 10, 2024, administrative authorities of administrative units across the country, where any of the five suspended NGOs had an  office or offices,  were given orders by hierarchy to seal  the office or offices. That was how the DO of Douala 1 and his Etat Major, accompanied by elements of the Forces of Law and Order, went to Bali in Douala 1 Sub – division, to seal the head office of REDHAC. But they met with opposition from the Board Chair of REDHAC, Barrister Alice Nkom, who twice destroyed the administrative seal that the DO put on the main door of the office building,

Wouri SDO, Mvogo Sylyac Marie, who received the complaint from his collaborator, the DO of Douala 1, ordered that the administrative seal should be reinforced with locks and chains.

The longest serving lawyer in Cameroon, and Board Chair of REDHAC, 80 year old senior Barrister, Alice Nkom, who is thus not just anybody in the country, strongly argued that she destroyed the administrative seal not out of disrespect for an administrative seal. Rather she asserted that she did what she did,  because the  decision of the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, to suspend REDHAC as well as to order that the office be sealed, were both illegal.

Human Rights Watch Confirms Illegality Of Minister Atanga Nji’s Decision

The reputed and international whistle blower on matters of human right, the Human Rights Watch, confirmed in a statement that was issued in Nairobi, Kenya, that the decision by the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, to suspend REDHAC, was illegal. The organization called on Cameroonian authorities to immediately reverse the suspension that was slammed on REDHAC on December 6, saying that the “arbitrary suspension lacks lawful basis and violates the rights to freedom of association under both the Cameroonian Law and international human rights law”.

.Human Right Watch explained that “Cameroon’s 1990 Law on Freedom of association, says that the territorial administration minister can only suspend an association with prior authorization from the provincial authority and for public – order and security related reasons”.  The international whistle blower on human rights opined that the decision that was taken by the Territorial Administration Minister “appears linked to the Cameroonian authorities’ pervasive crackdown on civil society, the media and the political opposition”.

“Cameroonian Authorities Have No Justification To Trample On Rights Protected By The Constitution”

The Senior Sahel Researcher at Human Rights Watch, Ilaria Allegrozzi, who usually leads the organization’s investigations on human rights issues in Cameroon, was quoted in the organization’s statement as insisting that: “Ensuring that associations operate transparently may be a legitimate aim, but the Cameroonians authorities have no justification to trample on the rights protected by the Constitution and the Law, and to bypass the judiciary. They should immediately lift the suspension, and use the proper procedures established by Law, to go after any group against whom there is credible evidence of involvement in illicit funding”.

National Agency For Financial Investigation, ANIF.

Meanwhile Human Rights Watch in the statement also noted that REDHAC’s lawyers launched an administrative appeal against the December 6 arête of the Minister of Territorial Administration, saying that the arête was an abuse of power, and was illegal. “They said it violates, among others, the 1990 Law on freedom of association, and the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African’s April 2016 Regulation on the prevention and suspension of Money Laundering and Financing Terrorism and Proliferation in Central Africa. The regulation says that only the National Agency for Financial Investigation (Agence Nationale d”Investigation Financiere, ANIF), and financial and judicial authorities are entitled to initiate any proceedings against offenders”.

Human Rights Watch said in Cameroon, REDHAC’s suspension had led to a public outcry. “National human rights groups and prominent, civil society figures, including lawyers and political opposition members, criticized the decision as yet another attempt to restrict the already thin space for civil society organizations, to operate in Cameroon”.

 Standoff Between Wouri SDO And Barrister Alice Nkom,  Begins

Meanwhile Barrister Alice Nkom’s decision to destroy an administrative seal that was put on the door of the head office of REDHAC, led to a standoff between her and the Wouri SDO. On Monday December 10 when Madam Nkom destroyed the administrative seal, Wouri SDO, Mvogo Sylvac Marie, issued ad administrative summon for her to appear at his office at Bonanjo, Douala on Tuesday, December 11, 2024 at 11am. But in a correspondence addressed to the Wouri SDO on December 11, Barrister Nkom stated that she only received the summon, at 10 am on that Tuesday, and when she was already engaged in another activity, and so could not make it the SDO’s office. She also questioned how the summon letter had to be sent to her through the Palace of Canton Bali.

The Wouri SDO sent a second summon to Madam Nkom through a bailiff, and in the two page document the administrative officer also took his turn to hit at the lady. The second summon was for Madam Nkom to appear at the Wouri Senior Divisional Office on Monday, December 16. The SDO explained that the summon letter issued to her (madam Nkom), was meant for her to come and explain, why she flagrantly violated law on December 10, by destroying an administrative seal.

State Of Emergency!

Then on Saturday December 14, the SDO signed an order that placed Douala under what looked like a State of Emergency, to from Sunday, December 15 to Tuesday, December 17. This was because some civil society leaders and activists had indicated that they would gather in front the SDO’s office on that Monday, December 16, for a peaceful protest demonstration in support of the Board Chair of REDHAC, Barrister Alice Nkom.

The SDO’s hierarchy did not like the December 14 decision that he took, considering that a meeting of Heads of States of member countries off the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC, was scheduled for Yaounde on Monday, December 16. The SDO’s order which included systematic checks of the content of vehicles and motorcycles, and the control of persons, were considered not good for the country’s image at such a moment. A moment when the eyes of the international community were on Cameroon, because of the meeting of the Heads of States of CEMAC member countries, especially with the strong rumour that the Heads of States were to announce another devaluation of the franc CFA.

Another Postponement

The Wouri SDO thus had to postpone the second summon he had issued to Madam Nkom. A collaborator of the SDO called Madam Nkom on Sunday, December 15 and informed her, that the date of the second summon would have to be postpone to a later date. He claimed this was because the SDO’s hands were too full. The SDO’s collaborator promised Madam Nkom that she would be addressed an official correspondence to indicate the new date. That was done on Tuesday, December 17, with the new date for the meeting fixed for December 19.

But another problem came up, as Madam Alice Nkom addressed a correspondence to Wouri SDO, saying that her lawyer, Barrister Dr Fotso Chebau Kamdem Fotsine, had travelled out of the country for professional matters. Madam Nkpm thus told the SDO that she would not appear at his office on December 19, because of the absence of her lawyer.  Barrister Alice Nkom proposed January 10, 2025 as the new date she would show up at the office of the Wouri SDO, in the company of her lawyer, for the meeting. The SDO did not formally response or react to Madam Nkom’s correspondence, but was quoted to have said that he had taken note.

Wouri SDO Drops The Matter!

But then when the Board Chair of REDHAC, Madam Alice Nkom, in the company of her lawyer went to the office of the SDO of Wouri, Mvogo Sylvac Marie, on January 10, 2025, they embarrassingly realized that neither the SDO nor any of his collaborators was ready to receive them. Suffice to say they left the place without having been received by the SDO or any of his collaborators, in connection to the summon letter she was issued.  “We got to the SDO’s office at Bonanjo, and it was as if they were not expecting us”, Madam Alice Nkom said.

The Wouri SDO has since not said a word on the issue.  Some sources say the hierarchy in Yaounde prefers the matter against Madam Alice Nkom at the SED or the Yaounde Military Tribunal. And so the Wouri SDO was seemingly instructed to drop the matter against Madam Nkom, at his level.

There is talk of another file against Barrister Alice Nkom at the Judicial Police in Douala, still for the same charge of destruction of administrative seal.