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By Tata Mbunwe
Media billionaire Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga will be spending his first night at the Yaounde Central Prison, Kondengui alone this Saturday, February 4th, 2023, after his close aide, Bruno Bidjang, and father-in-law Col Raymond Etoundi Nsoe, who were both arrested with him, were freed.
They were released early this morning by the same verdict of the Yaounde Military Court, which transferred Belinga and several other suspects in the murder of Journalist Martinez Zogo from preliminary to pretrial detention.
Col Raymond Etoundi Nsoe is the father of Amougou Belinga’s youngest wife, Melissa.
The retired commander of the presidential guard is said to have been in charge of his son-in-law’s private security.
Col Nsoe was arrested with Belinga and Bruno Bidjang, a close friend, and Amougou Belinga’s most trusted employee.
Etoundi Nsoe and Bruno Bidjang walked home this morning without Belinga, who is now being officially charged with the abduction and murder of Zogo.
Following the military court verdict, reports say Amougou Belinga and the other suspects were thereafter transferred from the State Secretariat of Defence for the Gendarmerie, SED, to Kondengui prison.
The judge found the evidence brought against them substantial enough for trial to be initiated.
Meanwhile, the court’s pronouncement was based on investigation report produced by a mixed commission of police and gendarmes.
The investigation also found substantial evidence against the head of the secret service, Maxime Eko Eko, and the director special operations, Justin Danwe, and about 20 of his agents who reportedly executed the abduction and murder of Zogo.
This is the most significant development in the Martinez Zogo case since the arrest of Amougou Belinga and his close allies on February 6.
The owner of l’Anecdote Media Group is reportedly the architect of the journalist’s murder and is said to have sponsored DGRE agents who executed the operation.
Wazizi also deserves justice
The progress being made towards investigations on the Martinez Zogo case brings to fruition Government’s repeated pledge to seek justice for the murdered journalist.
But it also reignites questions as to whether the government will also seek justice for journalist Samuel Wazizi, who died in detention under suspicious circumstances.
This is the worry expressed by renowned UK-based Cameroonian journalists, Mimi Mefo, who says Samuel Wazizi also deserves justice just like Martinez Zogo.
She adds that it is not too late for authorities to reopen the case over two years since the journalist was pronounced dead.
Mimi Mefo Info
