allAfrica.com: Cameroon: Forjindam Sacked As Chantier Naval GM, Arrested (Page 1 of 1)

Zacheus Moungwe Forjindam is no longer the General Manager of the National Shipyard and Engineering Company, popularly known in French as Chantier Naval.

Forjindam was relieved of his functions during a BOD meeting of the company, Wednesday, May 7 by the President of the Board of Directors, Louis Claude Nyassa. CRTV later reported on its 7:30 newscast on Wednesday that police whisked off the former General Manager as he left the premises of Chantier Naval.

His deputy, Antoine Bekoro Alo'o, who was recently appointed to that position, takes over as the new GM of Chantier Naval.In recent months some private newspaper reports had carried front page stories claiming that Forjindam had been a visitor at the Judicial Police in Douala to answer questions relating to corruption and embezzlement of state funds.

However, no official source(s) will confirm that information. What was at stake at the time was an audit report that was done on the company, led by the man who is today the GM of Chantier Naval, Bikoro, from the ruling Beti tribe.

Immediately after the Bikoro-led team handed in their audit report, the post of the Deputy General Manager of Chantier Naval, which had practically never existed, was filled with Antoine Bikoro Alo'o ostensibly in waiting for Forjindam to be shoved out... Since January this year, Bikoro has been Deputy GM in charge of Financial Affairs.

Things seem to be moving very fast in that state-controlled company as a board meeting held May 7 at the company's head office in Douala saw the dismissal of Forjindam, who has been at the helm of that company for more than twenty years and who, during this period, almost single-handedly raised a mere scrap yard to a veritable shipyard, with a worldwide reputation.

Forjindam took the staff strength of the Shipyard from something like 34 to over 35.000 workers during his tenure that was brutally truncated on Wednesday. Observers also hold that the "apostles" of the ruling clan were not very pleased with Forjindam for initiating and obtaining external funding for the Shipyard project and to a certain extent the deep seaport in Limbe, instead of Kribi in the South Province.

This explains why even when the man still ceremonially remained in office, the news media was agog with the news of government having gone pretty far with the construction of the Kribi deep seaport.

A diehard militant of the ruling party who kick-started the campaign that culminated in a constitutional revision to make Biya President for life, Forjindarm transformed Chantier Naval into a veritable money spinner, raking in tens of billions yearly into the national economy. In fact, he is the only individual ever known to have been singled out for praise by the Head of State during his traditional New Year address to the nation.

This was some three years back.Until the May 7, Chantier Naval Board meeting came to about, there has been a lot of intrigue, backstabbing and harrassment of the person of Forjindam. Some newspapers, in Cameroon, suggestively, on the payroll of some clannish and regional interests, have been plotting, by all means to have Forjindam, an Aglophone from the Northwest Province fired as Chantier Naval GM.

Other newspapers have pointed accusing fingers at Laurent Esso, Secretary General in the Presidency of the Republic for being the main architect of the downfall of Forjindam.

These newspapers posit that Esso had wanted a French company, where he (Esso) has an interest, to win a contract worth FCFA 11 billion for the construction of a wharf for the National Oil Refining Company, SONARA.

Forjindam also tendered for the contract that his company at the time (Chantier Naval) will do the job, within ten months at FCFA 7 billion. This contract was awarded to the said French company, which later on came to sublet the contract to Chantier Naval at FCFA 7 billion. Noticing that the French company could no longer do the job, and if he (Forjindam) accepts their terms, the state of Cameroon will be losing FCFA 4 billion without any justification.

Hence, it is reported that Forjindam drew the attention of the Presidency of the Republic to this apparent very shady deal. The contract was suspended and the French company lost the deal. Since then, some observers say, Esso has been on his feet to ensure that Forjindam be sacked as the GM of Chantier Naval.

Some quarters have been presenting the Sawa (Coastal people of Cameroon) domination of the oil sector in Cameroon as part of the reasons to unseat Forjindam. According to some newspaper reports, the Sawa people have always seen Forjindam as a speed brake to their complete domination of the Cameroonian oil sector.

It has also been observed on the other hand, that the Betis that dominate and virtually sit on, and pillage almost all financially viable sectors of the economy, felt that Forjindarm had built Chantier Naval up to the point where the company was oozing with money and thought the time had come to have one of theirs naturally installed on the gold mine.

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