UB Crisis: ADDEC President, Envoy Released from Prison Two hours after there was information posted to the effect that the President of Addec, Batoum Thierry had been taken hostage and his ID card confiscated following instructions from the state prosecutor (Procureur General of Buea,) he was summoned by his investigator, Police Officer Mebara. To Batoum it was surprising to hear that the state prosecutor who was reported to have travelled was available. After hours of questioning as to the origins of the mail which announced the purported death of a University of Buea student, a certain Ngu Lawrence Batoum had to pay the sum of ten thousand frs as bail to gain his freedom. The state prosecutor is reported to have caused Batoum to open Addec’s email box which was ‘exploited’ by the judicial officers. “They asked me to leave the email box open and until I left it remained open. I do not know their intensions,” he told reporters, shortly after his release. Within that same period Addec’s emissary who was in Buea to investigate the purported death of the UB student had been brought to the state council office form the Buea prison where he had been remanded 48 hours earlier. After much interrogation on the link between the two student bodies, (UBSU and ADDEC) Nanfack Alex presented a land title. (This was a precondition for his release.) Both student leaders finally gained their freedom late in the evening of Friday but would have to appear again before the Buea Court of First Instance on August 7. They are reported to have been charged with spreading false information. Earlier on that same Friday August 2, the interim President of the University of Buea Students Union, UBSU Minang Ronald, and other UBSU officials were also reportedly questioned by the State Prosecutor. Minang and the 16 other University of Buea Students (6 of them currently awaiting trial at the Buea Prison- the others are on bail) are due to appear before the Buea Court of First instance on August 14 in connection with the February 2013 demonstration in the institution. Meanwhile, in an interview granted the National Broadcasting Cooperation, , the President of the Buea Chapter of the Higher Education Teachers’Trade Union, Synes, Prof Michel Yanou blamed the recurrent strike actions at the University of Buea to the manipulation of students by some UB administrators who want to be appointed Vice Chancellor by making it difficult for those in office to govern. He called for the application of Art 54 of the texts creating the University of Buea which stipulates that the VC, Deans, Directors and other officials are elected. The Deputy VC in charge of Relations with the Biz World in a parallel interview described some the reasons for which students went on strike as unfounded. Prof Ngo argued that the students were wrong to go on strike on grounds that the university administration has increased the cumulative GPA for students who are to benefit from President Biya’s grants to best University students. To him it is neither the Vice Chancellor nor the administration which decides on who benefits but the Ministry of Higher Education. In the same vein the truth and reconciliation committee of the University of Buea put in place towards putting a definite end to recurrent strike actions at the institution, headed by Professor Blaise Moukoko has finished its work and is said to have handed its findings to the administration. The report is said to have indicted senior UB officials of using UBSU to distabilise any VC who was not ‘working’ with them. The same persons are reported to be working with some VCs to destabilize UBSU whenever the student body looked too ‘strong.’
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 14:23:42 +0000