Neighbours Jubilate as Fire Renders CPDM Secretary General Homeless

Yaounde, Cameroon—A value common to most Africans is sharing with the less privileged.

 It seems this coveted African value is not practiced by former deputy prime minister of Cameroon and current secretary general of the central committee of the ruling CPDM party, Jean Kuete.

Jean Kuete, CPDM Secretary General

Neighbours have stopped jubilating a week after fire razed his residence near the Omnisport Stadium in Yaounde.

Besides several furniture and other household equipment, CFA 120 million was also lost in the fire, it is rumoured in the neighbourhood .

Alex, Nkuete’s neighbour, said they (the neighbours) are happy that fire consumed the residence of the CPDM scribe.

The CPDM scribe is a very stingy member of government who has never invited neighbours join him during feasts in his home, he said at a bar a stone’s throw from the scene of the fire.

‘Am happy the fire consumed his house on our behalf’, Alex says.

 Like Alex, Cyrille, another young neighbour to the CPDM scribe said, in other neighbourhoods, ministers invite neighbours during feasts like Christmas, New Year, Ramadan…but “their own minister” has never done so.

‘We do not enjoy being neighbours to a minister like our peers in other neighborhoods’, Cyrille says.

Many more inhabitants of the Omnisport neighborhood who News Watch met claim Jean Kuete is very reclusive and stingy.

Other inhabitants of the area, who do not share the views of the aforementioned, hold that the fire was the result of “crimes” Nkuete committed while serving as minister of agriculture and rural development, a post he held at the same time with that of deputy prime minister.

Talking on grounds of anonymity, a neighbour who watched the fire incident said the fire could be ‘following’ the minister since peasants are peeved  because he  embezzled funds that were meant for them while he served as minister of agriculture.

Eye witnesses said the fire would have started around 10:15 p.m. (21H15Gmt) on the roof of a room in which Nkuete’s niece was sleeping in on August 12, 2014.

Kuete's residence a day after fire incident

"The boss was about to receive a guest in one room, the children were in the living room and with their mother watching television when the girl alerted them of fire in the room", a source revealed.

Our source adds that fire fighters at Mimboman; not too far from Omnisport were called but could not arrive the scene on time.

“Before their arrival, we went there and helped them in removing some articles from the house”, explains André, another neighbour to Jean Kuete.

 André adds that after putting out the fire, they had drinks for free including champagne.

The jubilation by Jean Kuete’s neighbours following the mishap could be a warning to most wealthy Cameroonians who rather than help the poor prefer to invest in mansions, some of which they may not know all the rooms.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi in Yaounde