Who killed Rev. Fr Alexander Sob?

Was the former Catholic Education Secretary felled by stray bullets or slain for his unflinching stance that schools should run unperturbed in the NW and SW?

Late Fr Alexander Nougi Sop

There has been wailing across the town of Buea and beyond following news of the brutal killing of the former Catholic Education Secretary of the Buea diocese, Reverend Father Alexander Sob Nougi.

The prelate was shot in Muyuka, Fako Division of the South West region on Friday July 20, 2018, reports say. Until his demise, Fr Sob was serving as Parish Priest of Sacred Heart Parish in Bomaka, Buea.

The Catholic Church confirmed the death of the charismatic priest Saturday but did not state the exact circumstances leading to his demise.  

Some reports have it that the prelate who was in Muyuka supposedly to visit his family met his doom from stray bullets following a gun exchange between security forces and Anglophone separatist fighters while other sources say he was eliminated following his stance that schools should run unperturbed in the crisis-hit North West and South West regions. NewsWatch could not however independently verify the actual cause of Fr. Sob’s gruesome killing.

A sister publication, The Guardian Post gathered reported that Rev Fr. Sob, who was due to defend his PhD thesis in weeks, had just left the University of Buea where he gave part- time lectures in the faculty of Education, before taking off for Muyuka, a locality where he lived a majority of his days on earth.

A gun exchange between security forces and Anglophone separatist fighters in the town of the Muyuka on that fateful Friday saw Fr Sob emerge as one of the biggest casualties. An account said the humble priest was shot twice on his chest while in his car, which was parked beside the main road in the town Muyuka.

Fr. Sob was however later confirmed dead by medics at a Muyuka hospital where he was rushed to. Father Sob’s death has been received with shock and consternation. Since Friday, there has been outrage on the social media with thousands pouring out glowing tributes to the late clergy, and cursing those who may have been involved in one way or the other in his brutish murder.

Rev Fr. Alexander Nougi Sob who served for years as Catholic Education secretary of the Buea diocese was from a humble background. His father, to note, was a catholic primary school teacher who served the church dedicatedly for more than 40 years but retired poor. Having grown in the household of a catholic primary school teacher and seeing how difficult it was to survive, Fr. Sob was of the conviction that the best gift to offer teachers is to enable them live a life of maximum standards. To this, he fought tooth and nail to better the salary situation of teachers serving in schools across the Buea Diocese during his days as education secretary.

The Man

Fr Sob began his journey to priest- hood in 1985 when he got admission into Bishop Rogan College, the oldest minor seminary. He graduated from Bishop Rogan in 1992 and then moved to the St Thomas Aquinas Major semi- nary in Bambui, North West region. He left the seminary in 2001 and taught English Language at St Joseph College, Sasse, before later being transferred to the Minor Seminary in Efok, near Obala in the Centre region. Between 2007 and 2011, Fr. Sob was principal of Regina Pacis College, REPACOL, Mutengene in the South West region. While at REPACOL, Fr Sob, who later defended a Master’s degree thesis in Educational Foundations and Administration at the University of Buea, registered the best commercial results for the college at both the ordinary and Advance level. He was then catapulted in 2012 to the position of Education secretary for the Diocese of Buea. Fr Sob has a unique story as a priest. He had his ordination delayed for five years but was finally ordained priest at Obala in 2005 while he served as Discipline Master at the Efok Minor Seminary.

It was Father Sob who fought day and night for the creation of a credit union by the catholic diocese of Buea where teachers could do their savings. Sob was often quoted as saying the credit union with a membership of over 1,000 back then in 2015, has as vision to create, empower, dignify and sustain communities where poverty is eradicated through sharing for common good.

The late Fr Sob, it should be said, was a real epitome of versatility. Until his demise last week, he co-anchored a programme on CRTV’s Mount Cameroon FM in Buea, where he endeared himself to millions of the radio station’s listeners as a result of fine voice and creative dexterity. Authorities of the Buea Diocese have said they will announce his funeral pro- gramme in the days ahead.

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Adapted from The Guardian Post daily newspaper

Senegalese envoy dies in Cameroon

Late Vincent Badji

Yaounde, Cameroon - The outgoing Senegalese Ambassador to Cameroon, Mr Vincent Badji, is dead, state broadcaster CRTV reported.

CRTV said that Mr Badji died of heart attack while watching television at his Yaoundé residence on Sunday.

The diplomat who had come to the end of his three-year diplomatic mission to Cameroon, was due to leave Yaoundé for the Vatican as his country’s ambassador to the Holy See.

Diplomatic practice

Mr Badji had been granted farewell audiences by Cameroon state authorities in conformity with diplomatic practice.

House Speaker Cavaye Yeguie Djibril on June 18 received the diplomat while the president of the Senate, Mr Marcel Niat Njifenji, also held talks with him on July 4.

The envoy's last public outing was when he was received by Prime Minister Philemon Yang on July 5.

The agreements

Talking to the press after the meeting with the Prime Minister, the ambassador described the ties between Cameroon and Senegal as excellent.

He said some of the high points of the cooperation were the agreements that were ready for signing; one of which is the exemption of visas for holders of official passports, decentralised cooperation and higher education.

Yaoundé, Mr Badji said, was expected to host the Cameroon-Senegal Joint Commission this year and he remained optimistic that officials of the two countries would sign the agreements during the session.

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Courtesy The East African

Minister's claim that Cameroon has no jailed journalists is completely wrong

By Amindeh Blaise Atabong*

Yaounde, Cameroon - Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Minister of Communication, has once more maintained that no journalist is detained in Cameroon or has been arrested for their work, even as there is a plethora of impeccable evidence to prove the contrary. Tchiroma, who assumes the responsibility of government spokesman, has repeatedly claimed Cameroon is among the freest countries on the continent in terms of press freedom, and that journalists go about their job freely, without government reprisal. People wouldn't even believe him if he said the truth, at least in the last two years.

A mountain of evidence points to two facts: Journalists have been arrested and detained for months for regular journalism practice and Cameroon has been ranked very low by different press freedom perception indexes.

Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Minster of Communication in one of his press outings.

On May 2, 2017, Minister Tchiroma declared over the state broadcaster CRTV that no journalist was held in Cameroon for their work. Much earlier on February 15, 2017, he told the Committee to Protect Journalists that government was completely transparent and people could easily speak up their minds. Tchiroma was categorical that no journalist was in prison in Cameroon and that journalist should not “pretend to be arrested for their work.” He had made same claims to reporters during a press conference in the nation’s capital Yaounde, prior to the subsequent declarations.

The government minister may have gotten his fact wrong for one reason – most journalists who are arrested and detained are usually not formally charged over long periods. This is in gross violation of portions of Section 119 of Cameroon’s Criminal Procedure Code which stipulate that the time allowed for remand in custody shall not exceed 48 hours, renewable

once.

But by the time Tchiroma was making his claim, Radio France Internationale's Hausa service reporter, Ahmed Abba had been held incommunicado for close to three years after being arrested in Maroua for covering the activities of the terrorist group Boko Haram. He was later charged of “non-denunciation of terrorism” and “laundering of the proceeds of terrorist acts,” and sentenced to 10 years in prison on terrorism charges. Only an appeal saw his release in late 2017.

Arrests of journalists and confirmations

On February 9, 2017, three journalists were arrested in Buea: Amos Fofung Nkonchoh, South West/Littoral bureau chief of The Guardian Post daily newspaper; Atia Tilarious Azohnwi, political desk editor of The Sun weekly newspaper; and Mofor Ndong, publisher of Voice of the Voiceless newspaper. They were first detained at the Molyko and Buea Town police stations in Buea, before being transferred to the judicial police headquarters in Yaounde. The journalists were subsequently transferred to the Yaounde central prison in Kondengui.

Authorisation issued by Yaounde Military Tribunal to visit journalist detained in prison

After the journalists were arrested and detained, Minister Tchiroma still claimed no journalists was in detention for their work. Yet, by February 20, 2017, an official government body - the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms (NCHRF) - had declared that at least five journalists were under arrest.

When this reporter approached authorities to ascertain the whereabouts of the journalists, the military prosecutor of the Yaounde Military Tribunal issued him an authorisation on July 13, 2017, to visit one of the journalists, Atia Tilarious Azohnwi, in prison. This attested to the effective detention of the journalist. Upon visiting the detention facility, this reporter realised at least four other journalists to include Thomas Awah Junior of Aghem Messenger magazine, Hans Achumba of Jakiri Community Radio and Tim Finnian of Life Time newspaper were also under detention. 

Discharge order of journalist issued by prison administrators

This reporter visited the detained journalists on at least three occasions when they were held. On one occasion, journalist Amos Fofung told this reporter he was really never ‘arrested’ in the first place. “I was invited to give a statement and return home but when I got there, the police commissioner told me it was late and I could only return the next day. But it never happened until months passed by,” Amos narrated. He disclosed that it is difficult to disassociate his arrest from his work.

Since the arrest and detention of the journalists, this reporter has addressed two correspondences to the minister of communication to find out if he still stood by his claims. But the minister would not respond to any. Before the close of the year 2017, some of the detained journalists were released on separate occasions, after having spent over six months in prison ‘awaiting’ trial which never came. While others stayed back, this reporter obtained release orders issued by penitentiary authorities for some of the freed journalists.

After some of the journalists were released, Minister Tchiroma still had time to tweet on September 20, 2017: “In Cameroon, there's no risk in practising journalism or voicing one's political views.” Tchiroma’s statement is not factual as there are so many pressures and constraints on journalists and most are too intimidated to voice out threats to their practice. The minister also basks on the multiplicity of fragile media organs to mean press freedom.

One of two correspondences addressed to the Minister of Communication still awaiting response

Cameroon ranks low

Minister Tchiroma may be among the isolated number of Cameroonians who hold that there is press freedom in the country. Cameroon finds itself at the bottom position of different press freedom rankings. On Reporters Without Borders’ 2018 World Press Freedom index, Cameroon is ranked 129 out of 180 with a score of 40.92. Don’t think the situation was any better the previous years.

Freedom of journalists in Cameroon is also under threat. Freedom House rates Cameroon as ‘Not Free’ in terms of press freedom. In Cameroon, journalists’ best effort can often be thwarted by government repression, unlike the ungrounded claims made by the government spokesman.

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This story was first published in the print edition of NewsWatch newspaper on Monday July 23, 2018.

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*Amindeh Blaise Atabong is an investigative journalist based in Yaounde, Cameroon. He has reported extensively on cross-border conflicts, civil unrest, elections, governance and other topics from Cameroon, Central Africa Republic and Nigeria.