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By Tata Mbunwe
Cameroon’s foremost opposition leader Maurice Kamto has decried rising criminality in the country, warning that the State is now being threatened by “mafia-type clans” who sponsor assassins to eliminate their perceived enemies.
In a post on Monday, February 6, the Chairperson of Cameroon Renaissance Movement party decried the gruesome killing of yet another radio host in the country, Rev Jean Jacques Ola Bebe, who was killed on Friday, February 3, barely two weeks after the murder of popular radio host Martinez Zogo.
Like Martinez Zogo, Rev Ola Bebe, a priest of Cameroon Orthodox Church, was intolerant of wrong doing and had publicly condemned the murder of Zogo few days before he too was eliminated.
“This other murder, which occurs while the judicial authorities are still keeping an overwhelming silence on the sponsors and killers of Martinez Zogo, is a genuine challenge to the Republic by mafia-type clans,” said Maurice Kamto.
“Indeed, the very survival of the State of Cameroon is now threatened by these gangs who publicly clash for the control of public resources and the materialisation of their disastrous political project of anti-democratic monopolisation of State power.
“This situation is the direct consequence of the flagrant failure of the current regime which, not content with impoverishing Cameroonians and making the country regress, is contributing to the fragmentation of the Nation,” he added.
Maurice Kamto’s concerns were also raised by some Cameroonians who protested at Cameroon’s Embassy in France on Saturday, decrying the rising insecurity and impunity against journalists in Cameroon.
Authorities remained silent after the killing of Jean Jacques Ola Bebe, but Maurice Kamto said his killers have to be investigated and punished just like Government is trying to do with those who murdered Martinez Zogo.
“The CRM demands, as it did in the case of the barbaric and odious execution of Martinez Zogo, that all light be shed on the murder of Reverend Jean Jacques Ola Bébé, and that the masterminds and perpetrators of this other heinous crime be actively sought, arrested, brought to justice, and severely punished,” Kamto said.
His statement was published few hours after prominent billionaire, Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga, was arrested by Gendarmes in connection with the killing of Martinez Zogo.
An earlier report by Reporters Without Borders directly linked him to the journalist’s murder, alongside the Minister of Justice Minister, Laurent Esso, and other high ranking personalities.
“Cameroon, our country, is on the verge of chaos, and it continues to be managed by means of communiqués, often contradicting each other,” Kamto said, adding that President Paul Biya, who will age 90 this year, should “put an end to this dangerous drift for the country”.
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