Kini Nsom
7 August 2008
After succumbing to several interrogations, the former Minister of External Relations, Jean Marie Atangana Mebara, was on Friday, August 1, arrested in connection with public funds embezzlement.
The judicial police caged Mebara for the alleged involvement in the shady circumstances that surrounded the purchase of the ill-fated Presidential plane, the "Albatross" a few years back.
The Post learnt that the erstwhile Secretary General at the Presidency was arrested from his Bastos residence in Yaounde in the early hours of the day.As the day grew older, family members, CPDM party militants, friends of the former minister and curious onlookers poured into the vicinity of the Judicial Police at the Elig-Essono neighbourhood.
Only close family members and friends were allowed to visit Mebara in his cell.The former minister, police sources say, will be facing trial for steering a fraudulent deal in which the old "Albatross" was bought for very a fabulous sum.
The Boeing 767-200 said to be 18 years old at the time it was purchased, was replete with several mechanical problems that it almost crashed during its inaugural flight with the Presidential family in 2004.
All those involved in the racket are accused of lining their pockets with huge sums of money and buying a cheap aircraft that put the life of the President at risk.Following an earlier grilling by the police, the former Minister reportedly hinged his defence statement on the idea that he is not a technician and could never have known that the aircraft they bought was not in good working shape.
He said he gave his go-ahead for the purchase of the Albatross when technicians said it was good. He is reported to have said only late Rene Owona, former Secretary General at the Presidency and late General Benae Mpecke had the responsibility to examine the technical aspect of the plane.
Elements of the Judicial Police interrogated Mebara for the first time on April 25, after his former colleagues, Urbain Olanguena and Polycarpe Abah Abah had been arrested on March 30.Rumours had made the rounds that he was on the run.
It is not known why the police arrested the 54-year-old former minister several months after they interrogated him. But The Post learnt that the arrest is the reverse gear of a strong lobby in which Mebara had engaged in, to put pressure on President Paul Biya to let him off the hook of prosecution. The former minister is said to have pleaded with the Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon, to beg President Biya to allow him go free.
The man of God is alleged to have pleaded with President Biya to spare Mebara because he is one of his best Christians. It is also alleged that while attending festivities marking the French National Day on July 14, at the French Embassy in Yaounde, Mebara equally pleaded with the French Ambassador H.E. George Serre, to beg Biya for him.
It is further alleged that the diplomat who was received in audience at the Unity Palace, also tried to plead with the President to let Mebara off the hook.Observers interpreted the arrest of the former Minister of Higher Education (1997 to 2002) to mean that Biya scorned all pleas to him to allow Mebara.
Some people even claim that it was the President's tacit message that he would not listen to anybody if he or she is pleading with him to grant impunity to suspected embezzlers of state funds.
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Another school of thought held that Mebara might have been arrested on account of the implicating information some of those who have been interrogated have given against him.
It would be recalled that the Prime Minister, Ephraim Inoni, who was Atangana Mebara's deputy at the Presidency at the time of the Albatross deal, was interrogated last week as a prosecution witness.
Besides, the former boss of the Cameroon Airlines, CAMAIR, Yves Michel Fotso, was once more quizzed by the Judicial Police on Thursday, July 31, on the same matter.Police sources say he was there for less than two hours.The police are equally alleged to have grilled the deputy General Manager of the Assets of Portfolio Management, APM, the outfit that won the contract to purchase the Albatross.
It is alleged that Hubert Patrick Otele Essomba was not only interrogated but also detained.
From the look of things, many heads are expected to roll in the days ahead as interrogations into the Albatross affair accelerate.Last weekend, it was alleged that the leaders of "Operation Sparrow Hawk", Alain Edgar Mebe Ngo'o and Amadou Ali were to meet Biya in Mvomeka to find out what speed to use in the operation.
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