Pastor Babila Vena demands justice from his prison cell

Pastor Babila Vena is battling with poor health at the Kondengui Central Prison in Yaounde Cameroon since October 2017.

“I’m suffering from gastric and severe spinal pain around my lower back.This started in October 2017 following torture inflicted on me by the military.I was tied on a vehicle from Kumba in the South West to Yaounde and severely kicked by soldiers throughout the journey,” he told Mimi Mefo Info Friday, March 19, 2021.

“I need to meet a bone specialist…but everything here in the prison is complicated. Given that I don’t have money is not easy.When I have an appointment to see the doctor, delays to have permission will hinder the process”.

To the 29-year-old, he has been to the hospital with no significant improvement.

Arrested on the 7th of October 2017 in Kumba, Meme Division in the South West Region of Cameroon, Pastor Babila Vena;l, founding pastor of Grace Embassy in Kumba says he has stood trial at the Yaounde military tribunal once – on the 1st of March 2021 that is close to four years after he was taken in Kumba by the military.

“I was bundled, tortured and taken from Kumba to a room in an unknown location from October 7th to December 21, 2021 before I was sent to the judicial police in Yaounde”.

On the 5th of January 2018, Babila Vena was charged with secession, revolution and insurrection at the Yaounde military tribunal and taken to the Kondengui Central Prison same day. He only had the opportunity to plead not guilty on the 1st of March 2021 in the same court.

Questioned why he was arrested in Kumba, Pastor Vena says, “I don’t know why I was arrested but I know the military were looking for a certain 45-year-old Babila. They came to the quarter and asked me and other people and we said we did not know the man. By then, I was 25-year-old. I still don’t understand why I was arrested after all these years.”

Arrested in October 2017, Babila Vena, a computer engineer specialized in building websites, mobile and desktop apps explains how family members only knew of his whereabouts on the 23rd of December 2017 after three months of search.

“…my burial without corpse was scheduled to hold in January 2018 as everyone thought I was dead,” he says.

The family of Babila Vena, following the ravaging effects of the Anglophone crisis in the South West, has relocated to Yaounde living in deplorable condition while praying for the release of Pastor Babila Vena. He was the breadwinner of the family before his arrest.

Mbatho Ntan.

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