Cameroon’s Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary,Thursday November 8, issued a statement, on the arrest and detention of Equinoxe’s Mimi Mefo.

According to Tchiroma, Mimi was arrested for allegedly giving wrong facts on the killing of an American Missionary, Charles Wesco in Bambui, Bamenda of the Northwest Region of Cameroon.

His full statement below:

 MINISTÈRE DE LA COMMUNICATION

                          MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATION

LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST MRS MIMI MEFO TAKOMBO

  STATEMENT BY H.E. ISSA TCHIROMA BAKARY

MINISTER OF COMMUNICATION

Yaoundé, November 8, 2018

“A group of terrorists broke in on the morning of Tuesday, October 30, 2018, at about 10 a.m. in Bambui, a rural area located 14 kilometres from Bamenda in the Tubah Subdivision of the Mezam Division, with the aim to attack the university area and the Tubah Territorial Brigade.

At the same time, American-born Reverend Charles Truman Wesco of blessed memory was passing around when he received a 12-gauge oblique bird-shot fired by a sneaky terrorist. Several pellets reached the victim at the parietal level of his skull, one below the lower right jaw and the last one at the level of his shoulder. He eventually succumbed to his wounds.

The Minister Delegate at the Presidency of the Republic in charge of Defence issued a release after this incident indicating that an investigation would be opened immediately. After the first elements of the said investigation were provided by the Judicial Police Officers of the North West Gendarmerie Legion, the remains were transferred to the Yaoundé General Hospital, where an autopsy was carried out in the presence of Cameroonian and American forensic doctors, a representative of the United States Embassy in Cameroon and the Government Commissioner to the Yaoundé Military Court.

During the autopsy, the pellets extracted from the remains confirmed that the shots that killed Reverend Charles Truman Wesco did indeed come from a 12-gauge weapon which is, as we know, used by the secessionist terrorists operating in the North-West and South-West regions.

The impacts left by the shots were effectively located in the right parietal part of the skull, the right face and the right shoulder of the victim; all things that confirm the position of the shooter stationed on the right side of the vehicle, a position occupied by the terrorists at the time of the incident.

Despite the evidence that has just been presented, Mrs MIMI MEFO TAKOMBO, presented as a journalist working in the audiovisual media of the Equinoxe group, stated in one of her posts dated 30 October 2018 at the address Mim237@Mimimefo237-2j that the American missionary was killed by the Cameroonian Army.

Let me give here the full text of her post. I quote: “Bambili in pictures! Doors destroyed, houses ransacked, animals killed. It has the picture of a war zone, where civilians are caught by “stray bullets” targeted killings.  A missionary has died today after he was shot by soldiers”, end of quote.

As we can therefore see, the words of Mrs MIMI MEFO TAKOMBO who, in addition to altering the reality of the facts and spreading manifest untruths, do not fail to bring our Defence Forces into disrepute, which is highly detrimental to the morale of the troops, while they are engaged in a loyal and legal fight against criminal hordes with a secessionist agenda.

Summoned to the Gendarmerie Legion of the Littoral on 7 November 2018, Mrs MIMI MEFO TAKOMBO was heard and referred to the Government Commissioner at the Douala Military Court.

Mrs MIMI MEFO TAKOMBO, who of course benefits from the presumption of innocence, is being prosecuted in flagrante delicto before the Douala Military Court for the following facts:

– dissemination of fake news, news lies likely to harm public authorities or national cohesion, facts provided for and punished under Section 113 of the Criminal Code;

– insult against constituted bodies and civil servants, incitement to revolt against the Government and Institutions of the Republic, acts provided for and sanctioned by Section 154 of the Criminal Code.

The defendant was subsequently remanded in custody at the New-Bell Central Prison in Douala.”