Apart from
the elections in which CRTV’s Simon Lyonga, beat MediaPeople Newspaper publisher, Franklin Sone Bayen to the helm of
the association, a peeved erstwhile CAMASEJ Bamenda chapter president, Comfort
Mussa, addressed the assembly following what she described as libelous and
defamatory allegations against her personality.
A CAMASEJ
handbook distributed to members at the meeting, a report on the Bamenda chapter
of the association where Mussa served as president after the tenures of Choves
Loh and Tanteh Vitalis, suggested that her leadership was poor.
“Musa’s
reign was even more unstable than that of Tanteh Vitalis and she was best
described as an absentee landlady in the worst sense of the word,” the report
claimed
“No one
seemed to know where she was and there was practically no communication between
her and the other members of her executive”
“These
statements are not true; the report is libelous and defamatory. Any time I was
absent from a meeting, it was either because I was on assignment out of Bamenda
or out of the country, in which ever case I have always obtained permission,”
Mussa fired back.
The
moderator of the Kumba gathering and former union public relations officer,
Moki Charles Linonge, who openly apologized on behalf of the association said
the contested report was written by the Bamenda chapter.
“We
apologize for the prejudice the article has caused. But one thing is certain,
the article came from Bamenda.”
The
editorial team of the publication did not disclose who inserted the paragraph, but
promised to trace through the mails they received during compilation of
material for the publication.
The author
of the said chapter Choves Loh, said the article he submitted did not include
the paragraph containing the ‘libelous’ allegations against Mussa. The out gone
national vice president of CAMASEJ claimed the paragraph was inserted by
someone else.
While
CAMASEJ promised to correct the remaining three-quarters of the unprinted
copies, members who had already received the about 100 copies were advised to
tear off pages 19 and 20 where the ‘libelous and defamatory’ report was found.
However,
after expressing her fury at the general assembly, Mussa briefed her lawyers in
Bamenda who are determined to see the matter settled in court, we learnt. Sources
say Mussa’s lawyers would be considering an amicable settlement and would only
file a law suit against CAMASEJ for libel if the out of court settlement fails.
“Am yet to
know who did,” Mussa told this reporter in a phone conversation Thursday.
Mussa, a
journalist and gender activist, has won several international awards.
The “CAMASEJ
handbook wahala” came barely minutes after the association named her runner up
in the online reporting category of its career awards. She runs a news portal,
SisterSpeak.com (www.sisterspeak237.com) and reports for the Global Press
Institute. Eugene Nforngwa, publisher of The Standard Tribune (Standard-Tribune.com) grabbed
the first prize. Dibussi Tande publisher of Dibussi.com was third.
By Ndi Eugene
Ndi, just back from Kumba.
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