/By Macdonald Ayang Okumb/
 |
| Barrister Ashu Samuel: The Man The Tiko DO Padlocked |
A Judge at the Fako High Court in Buea, Justice
Otto Esseme Ngame, last Thursday awarded court cost of FCFA 150,000 to the
Divisional Officer, DO, of Tiko Sub-division, Patrick Che Ngwashi for failing
to enter appearance for an originating summons after being duly served.
The case that opened that Thursday is
pitting the Tiko DO, two police officers by name Alfred Nformi Wepnje (Tiko
Police Commissioner) and Elvis Osong as well as the State of Cameroon
(represented by the ministry of territorial administration and
decentralisation) against three plaintiffs namely, Barristers Samuel Ashu
Bisong, Eric Forsack Forteck and the Fako Lawyers’ Association, FAKLA
represented by its president Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor-Balla.
It all began on Monday 18 May 2015 when
the DO padlocked Barristers Samuel Ashu and Eric Forsack in their Tiko chambers
for more than one hour on grounds that the chambers was open during a
Keep-Tiko-Clean campaign that day.
The lawyers’ anger is that by doing so,
the DO acted ultra vires and that it was not the first time he was acting as
such towards Lawyers. He had once also orchestrated the detention of Late
Barrister Innocent Bonu and Benjamin Enow Agbor three years ago.
The lawyers’ attempt to cause the DO
apologise for his action met with a stone wall; reason why they dragged him
to court.
“We want the court to determine whether
any person, group of persons or administrative officers who detains any citizen
in a confined place without a warrant duly issued by a judicial officer can be
said and held to have violated the human rights of that citizen...whether any
person who enters the premises of a citizen without a warrant or without the
authority of that citizen can be termed to have trespassed on the citizen’s
property...whether any person not acting by the strength of a judicial
instrument or acting under the fiscal law can legally pretend to seal the
business premises of any citizen and in any case do so without drawing up a
report and minutes of the exercise” Barrister Enow Agbor stated.
The Tiko DO, who has however been sued
not as DO but in his individual name, was not present at the court that
Thursday, neither was any legal representative of his. And no justification was
tendered to the court to that effect.
It was then that the Judge, after being
solicited by the counsels for the plaintiffs to award costs to the DO worth
FCFA 20 million, that he (the Judge) finally settled for FCFA 150, 000 and then
adjourned the matter to Thursday 6 August for another hearing.
The auditorium of the Fako High court
was full to capacity as more than 100 lawyers and Advocates-in-training were
present to support their colleagues.
The Lead Counsel for the Plaintiffs is
Barrister Benjamin Enow Agbor (who was himself once unlawfully detained by DO
Patrick Che) and will be assisted in the process by more than forty lawyers,
among them, prominent names like Barristers Harmony Bobga, Ikome Ngongi, Ebah
Ntoko and Gladys Mbuya who’s the Vice President of the Africa chapter of the
International Federation of Women Lawyers, known by the French acronym FIDA.
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