The Cameroon News

March 27, 2012

Politics

Detained Regime Critic Tells Biya He’s Contemplating Suicide

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Political pundits in Cameroon commonly agree Enoh Meyomesse is a vastly contentious figure. The versatile writer and steadfast faultfinder of the Yaounde regime has inflated that perception following a missive he has addressed to President Paul Biya threatening to intentionally take his own life.

I begin a hunger strike this week and I plan to stop eating until death ensues, and I will kill myself with rat poison if I don’t obtain satisfaction regarding my demands,” he warned in the letter destined for Biya and dated March 19. He adds he will not regret leaving the world with his head held up high.

Meyomesse has been in pre-trial incarceration for close to four months. He was nabbed by security operatives upon return from a trip to Asia last December 2011. Gendarmes accused him and accomplices of burgling a gold exploitation in the East region and carting of hundreds-of-millions-worth of the precious metal.

In fact, Meyomesse and his alleged accomplices were paraded on state-run TV as hardened bandits during a reconstitution of the crime in Bertoua in December. But the 58-year-old leader of the national Renaissance Party whose candidature ahead of the October 2011 was disqualified owing to late submission has consistently denied the charges.

In the letter intended for President Biya, Meyomesse directs accusing fingers at one Col. Oumarou Galibou. He says despite ransacking his home without a warrant ahead of his arrest in November 2011 and finding no substantial evidence to incriminate him, Col Galibou went ahead to charge him for illegal possession of arms, and leading the gang that robbed the gold mining company. He initially spent 30 days in detention in Bertoua before being transferred to prison in Yaoundé.

The author of seventeen books and graduate of the Strasbourg Institute of Political Studies in France returned to Cameroon in 1987. During his stay in France, he was a militant with several African students’ movements including National Union of Students of Kamerun, UNEK and the Federation of Black African Students.

In 1992, he launched his political activism by vainly vying for a seat in parliament. Three years later in 1995, he founded the National Renaissance Party. In 2010, his name appeared on a roster of anti-Biya coup plotters. Last year, his passport was seized at the airport as he verged on traveling to the Ivory Coast to dedicate a pro-Gbagbo book. Meyomesse eventually journeyed to Abidjan by road.

Following his incarceration last December, Communications Minister and government spokesperson, Issa Bakary Tchiroma went on air on state television to drive home the nail. He insinuated that Meyomesse, albeit his brilliant writings and criticisms of the Biya government, was a mere gold robber. But Meyomesse’s acolytes believe he is paying the price for his unremittingly scathing attacks on Biya, who hails from the same region as himself. The government is yet to react to the suicide threat.

Article source Cameroon Post Online, posted on The Cameroon News under Cameroon Political News