Buea (National Times)-Barrister Amungua Tanyi Nico, chairman of the media and Communication for the Defense team of Cameroon’s separatists’ leaders has issued a statement announcing the boycott of hearings at the military tribunal in Yaounde as from April 29th.
According to the statement released Friday April 26th, “appearances shall only resume before the military tribunal in Yaounde after their appeal pending before the Appeal Court of the Center Region shall be determined by that jurisdiction”.
The advocate in the statement heralds that, “ the extant law regulating criminal procedure in the Republic of Cameroon is unequivocal to the effect that, once an interlocutory appeal is filed , the lower court obligatorily suspends all other business and stays proceedings until the matter is heard by the Appeal Court”.
Today’s statement comes after weeks of confusion within the public space over the way forward in a matter whose ending will have an impact on the current armed conflict raging across English-speaking Cameroon.
On March 1st this year, an Abuja High Court in the Federal Republic of Nigeria ruled that, the separatists’ leaders should be repatriated to where they were arrested. The same ruling asked for the compensation of self-declared president of ‘Ambazonia’ Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and members of his cabinet currently detained at the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde.
Since then, nothing has changed with the trial of the Anglophone separatists’ movement leaders. The ruling from Nigeria had triggered hope within some circles for something strange to happen in relation to the detained regaining freedom. Yet the end of the matter seems to be years away if a political option is not sort to end the crisis.
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