Etoudi: Emergency Meeting Convened On Ayuk Tabe Case

The confusion reigns around the extradition to Yaounde of the president of Ambazonia and company.

From generally well-informed sources, an emergency meeting of the National Security Council (NCS) was held last Friday at the Unity Palace early in the evening. The meeting was chaired by Paul Atanga Nji, the Permanent Secretary of this body, Joseph Beti Assomo, Minister Delegate to the Presidency of the Republic in charge of Defense; the General Delegate for National Security, Martin Mbarga Nguélé; the Director General of External Research, Leopold Maxime Eko Eko; the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, René Sadi; the director of presidential security, Ivo Desencio Yenwo; the commander of the presidential guard, Raymond Charles Beko'o Abondo; the central director of coordination at the State Secretariat for Defense,

It's hard to know if this is a pure coincidence of the calendar, but this meeting took place only hours after French television stations, France 24 and Tv5 Africa in this case began to broadcast in a loop information indicating the extradition to Cameroon, in the evening last Thursday, of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and company.

Etoudi: Emergency Meeting Convened On Ayuk Tabe Case

The president of Ambazonia, eight members of his government and the leader of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), Nfor Ngala Nfor, are said to be detained at the State Secretariat for Defense (Sed). No official source has yet confirmed this information.

And as when they were arrested on January 5 in Abuja, Nigeria, the Cameroonian and Nigerian governments wallow in silence. Visibly skeptical, the Minister of Communication of the English-speaking independence movement, Chris Anu, does not confirm the information.

A member of the group of lawyers of the band in Sisiku Ayuk Tabe established in Yaoundé indicates that everything is confused for the moment. "We learned via the media that they would now be held in a secret prison in Yaoundé. 

The elements in our possession do not allow to confirm or deny this information, "he says. A senior officer of the Cameroonian army believes for its part that the information relating to the extradition or not of these persons is a defense-secret.
In a statement released on 24 January, the UN High Commission for Refugees (Hcr) said it had assurances from the Nigerian authorities that they would not extradite the secessionists they held to Cameroon. Between the two neighboring countries, there is a 46-year-old judicial cooperation agreement.

On January 24, France's Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, just stated that the secessionist leaders were "somewhere" and that in their position, the latter enjoyed "all the rights that confers their current position ". Above all, he seemed to make a connection between the arrest of the gang in Ayuk Tabe by the Nigerian authorities and the arrest warrant issued against it by Cameroon.