As time ebbs away to the hearing of the Gregoire Diboule murder case on October 13, the prosecution is said to be building evidence against SDF National Chairman, John Fru Ndi.

The SDF Chairman, who was arraigned before the Mfoundi High Court in Yaounde on August 18, was charged with complicity in the murder of Gregoire Diboule.Diboule was killed on May 26, 2006, when factions of the SDF party clashed over a controversial convention in Yaounde.

A source from the Legal Department told The Post that evidence to beef the claim that Fru Ndi ordered his militants to disrupt the Yaounde convention is being built up to nail the Chairman in the court.

The prosecution is said to be banking its case on newspaper interviews granted by retired Colonel Chi Ngafor, one of the 22 SDF militants serving pre-trial detention at the Kondengui Prison.

One of the local tabloids quoted the retired colonel as saying that Fru Ndi ordered him to use any means to stop the Yaounde convention, which he considered illegal.Chi Ngafor, who was president of the caretaker committee of the SDF in the Centre Province before his arrest, denied ever making such a declaration.

Recently, The Post learnt, the Legal Department in Yaounde interrogated all the journalists that published the interviews.The prosecution wanted to know whether what the journalists published was a faithful rendition of Col. Chi Ngafor's declarations during the interview.

The Legal Department is said to have been struggling to get the tapes in which the interviews were recorded from the journalists.

More so, some of the detained militants are said to have said they received instructions from the party to disrupt the case.The Post equally learnt that a controversial letter allegedly written by Fru Ndi to Chi Ngafor, giving instructions to disrupt the Yaounde meeting, is being circulated in Yaounde.

While talking about the letter, one of the SDF lead lawyers, Hon. Joseph Mbah Ndam, said if there is any letter in circulation, it can only be a fake document.He challenged anybody who believes that such a fake document would beef up evidence and further implicate Fru Ndi, to muster enough courage and summit the letter in court.

"Remember that somebody fabricated a document here, claiming that Fru Ndi has FCFA 20 billion in his London account. If there is any document that is being circulated, it is that kind of thing," Mbah Ndam argued.

He said that Fru Ndi was so busy with the convention in Bamenda that he did not have time for anything else.During preliminary investigations on the matter, the Legal Department summoned Fru Ndi three times for interrogation. But it was not until July 19, 2008, that the Examining Magistrate at the Mfoundi High Court charged him with complicity in the murder of Diboule.

Given that Fru Ndi is the leader of the main opposition party in the country, observers say the charges that came two years after the incident were politically motivated.The case is also coming up at a time when Fru Ndi dragged the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, to court for making defamatory statements against him.

Despite the political nature of the case, the judicial authorities say they are determined to fish out Diboule's murder in court no matter whose ox is gored.They say the murder was a common law crime against the Cameroonian people.

The SDF people say they are surprised that the court is prosecuting Fru Ndi, while those who organised the illegal meeting that led to the death of Diboule are going about their businesses freely.