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| Lawyer Enow Benjamin |
Barrister Enow Benjamin of
Liberty Law Firm in Mutengene, who was last Friday 7 elected as the new President
of Fako Lawyers’ Association (FAKLA), in replacement of the firebrand Human
Rights lawyer, Felix Agbor Nkongho, has vowed that his leadership will never
allow the bi-jural, bicultural nature of Cameroon to be compromised.
In his acceptance speech after his
election, at Buea Council where the polls took place, the new FAKLA boss urged
his colleagues to be more professionally-conscious and work towards the
promotion of the rule of law and Human rights.
“The most important thing
now is to ensure unity in FALKA so that we can pursue the objectives of the
association which predominantly are professional- being the watchdog of society
and ensuring that lawyers live daily within the means of the profession,”
President Enow said ,in a telephone conversation with this media outlet “We are
for the preservation of human rights for all Cameroonians”
Asked if his leadership
would follow in the footsteps of former FAKLA President, Felix Agbor
Nkongho,whose crusade for the respect of
Human Rights contributed in provoking the ongoing Anglophone crisis, a
confident-sounding Barrister Enow first commended what his predecessor did to
raise the level of human rights consciousness in society, then quipped:
“FAKLA will do everything
that is necessary to ensure that Cameroonians on both sides of the divide enjoy
their basic Human Rights and are protected. We will ensure that bijural,
bicultural and bilingual nature of our country can never ever be compromised.”
He promised to his
colleagues the putting in place of a
reconciliation committee in FAKLA, and to reform the association’s constitution
so that it meets up with the times, noting that the current constitution had
not taken into consideration the power of the social media.
Other members of the new
FAKLA executive body are:Vice president, Atemnkeng Elizabeth;
Secretary-General, Nji Valentine Aben ; Vice Secretary-general, Melle Didier
Melle ;Treasurer, Taminang Gilbert; Financial Secretary,Njenje Kleber; Vice
Financial secretary, Elizabeth Njonji; PRO,Tchana Anthony; Organizing
Secretary, Ebi Stanley; Chief Whip, Charles Lyonga.
The new FAKLA executives
have taken office in the midst of the current Anglophone crisis, which the
association also contributed in provoking, by creating greater human rights
awareness, especially in Anglophone Cameroon, whose citizens felt grossly marginalized.
The Anglophone crisis
started off in October 2016 with Common Law lawyers’ and teachers’ of the
English subsystem of education protesting against the “Frenchification” of their
adopted English way of life.
Elected FAKLA president early in 2015, Agbor Nkongho’s two-year mandate
had since expired, but his exco was still in office, reportedly because he
tried unsuccessfully to get an administrative clearance for an elective assembly
plus the fact that some senior lawyers proposed that internal wrangling in the association be settled first.
The outgone president had
given teeth to the on-going Anglophone crisis when he doubled as FAKLA
President & President of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC),
which coordinated wide-spread anti-government protests in the Northwest and
Southwest Regions.
Barrister Agbor Nkongho
became too popular with a huge following in Anglophone Cameroon and a seemingly
shaken Biya Government on January 17, 2017 banned the CACSC, then arrested him
and detained for eight months in Yaoundé.
Last Friday‘s FAKLA elective assembly was scheduled to hold in the hall of the Southwest Court of Appeal, but the
President of the court Justice Bechem Eyong Eneke , in a letter dated September
6,2018 and co-signed by the Procureur-General
for the Southwest Region, rejected the lawyers’ request ,arguing that “ a court
is a sacred place reserved exclusively for the conduct of court business”.
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| Lawyer Nji Valentine Aben |
The rejection- even after
an administrative clearance had been obtained from Buea DO for the meeting,
forced FAKLA to use the Buea Council hall for their come-together, which was
attended by over 100 lawyers, according to Lawyer Nji Valentine Aben, newly
elected FAKLA Scribe.
The new FAKLA Scribe, Lawyer Nji Aben and
convener of the elective assembly, told this news organ that “we fought tooth
and nail to have this elective assembly ”, casting doubt
on the reason advanced denying lawyers access
to the hall of the Southwest Court of
Appeal, whereas same hall had before
reportedly hosted similar meetings.
According to Lawyer Nji
Aben, one of the new exco’s plans of action is “to put back the profession on
the rails”
He stated, “There has been
a lot of laxity on the part of magistrates and even with some of us lawyers.
You go to the court and sometimes up to 2pm court sessions have not started”
Former FAKLA President,
Agbor Nkongho, did not attend the elective assembly because he was en route to
Nigeria to meet Cameroonian refugees, but he had reportedly called to express
his wish to see the association emerge from the election stronger.
FAKLA was created in 1997
and the Protem chair was late Barrister Ngu Gordon. Other FAKLA past presidents
include Barristers Charlie Sone,Njualem Charles , Ambilichu Emmanuel,
Ntoko Justice, Bache Francis,Ajong Stanislaus and Felix Agbor Nkongho.
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Bako Fowzie Abiba & Ayuk Oru M.
Shevett, University of Buea Journalism Interns contributed to this report.
(This report also appears in The Horizon Newspaper, Cameroon,of September 11,2018)
(This report also appears in The Horizon Newspaper, Cameroon,of September 11,2018)
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