Miscarriage of justice or persecution? Tah Emile Agwe detained without charge in Kondegui Central Prison since December 2016

After spending four years in detention, Tah Emile Agwe has said he needs justice and freedom from the Yaounde Kodengui Central Prison where he is still locked up without charge. He has been in detention since 2016.

He was a victim of mass arrests by the police in Bamenda in December 2016 at the start of the Anglophone crisis.

Emile says military men arrested him without charge, blindfolded and ferried him on a military aircraft, alongside many other English-speaking Cameroonians, to Kodengui.

“All I understand as far as my detention is concerned, till date, is that I was arrested because I’m an Anglophone and I foresee this name might sound more than the word terrorist. The country might be into this state today because of the tears, worries and innocence of someone like me and a host of others suffering the same fate. I bet you that when we cry, God hears our cries and reacts too,” he told MMI.

December 8, 2020 makes it four years since Emile Tah lost his freedom. He had dropped out of the University in 2016 when the crisis just began with teachers boycotting lectures. He says scores of other Anglophone victims are in Kondengui where their right to freedom or at least fair trial has been violated.

“… Is it really about the fact that I’m a terrorist as claimed by the military court or it is because I’m an Anglophone?” he wonders.

He was arrested at a period when some leaders of the Anglophone movement were arrested but most of them, including Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla and Dr Fontem Neba, have long been freed.

He says the case of voiceless innocent people crammed in Kondengui cells has been forgotten, with the state remaining mute.

According to Emile, innocent people should be liberated and the crisis in the English-speaking regions resolved, because “a cow that has no tail only God keeps flies away from its wounds,” he said.