Lawyers sue Minister again for failing to organise Bar exam

A group of Cameroonian lawyers led by Barristers Tamfu Richard and Menkem Tatang, have file a complaint at the Mfoudi High Court in Yaounde over the delay by the Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seal, Laurent Esso, to organise the Aptitude Test into the Bar.

They filed the Order of Mandamus on April 27, a civil suit that intends to get the court order the Minister to organise the bar exam.The Aptitude Test, which is supposed to be organised every December by the Minister of Justice, has not been organised since 2014.

Consequently, Cameroonian law students who want to join the Bar are forced to attend foreign law schools before they are admitted.Barrister Tamfu and the other lawyers have anchored their argument on the July 1991 decree organising the Aptitude Test and Pupilage at the Cameroon Bar.

Sections 1 and 2 of the decree, obliges the Minister of Justice to organize the test every year. But this has not happened for close to a decade.

The civil law suit is the second to be filed against Minister Esso in less than six months.

In November 2022, Barrister Lewis Forchenalah, a lawyer based in Buea, filed an Order of Mandamus at the Fako High Court, urging the court to order the Minister to organise the bar exam. But the court dismissed the case, stating that it had been filed in the wrong court.