Yaounde, Cameroon Africa (news.cameroon-today.com) – The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is forcing the government of Cameroon to open a fresh probe on the suspicious death of the journalist from Cameroon Bibi Ngota.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has evoked the Cameroon Government to launch another detailed investigation as soon as possible on the mysterious death of Cameroon journalist and Editor Cyrille Germain Ngota Ngota alias Bibi Ngota.
Ngota has dies in prison and it was u that torture in prison had led to his death. However the postmortem results which his colleagues feel are fabricated indicted that the death was caused by AIDS.
“We are surprised by the bias in the report presented by the Cameroonian authorities which purports to validate simply the official version conveyed shortly after the tragic incident,” declared Gabriel Baglo , Director of IFJ Africa office. “Cameroonian government has to take practical steps against impunity for violence on media.”
The global journalist fraternity through IFJ and the local journalists through Cameroon Journalists’ Trade Union (CJTU) have openly voice their distrust of the previous probe whose results were publicly announced by the government earlier this month.
The journalists feel that the report lacks genuinity and the relevant issues that were earlier chalked out by the journalists and human rights activists in his death have not been addressed adequately. Both the parties are strongly pressing the government to set up an independent commission to probe into t5he causes of death and to present a reliable report as early s possible.
The points that needs further investigation according to them are the causes for the jailing of the four journalists, conditions prevalent in the jails including the central prison of Yaounde where the convicts were detained, suspicious events that led to the death of Bibi Ngota and the attack that recently happened on Robert Harrys Mintya in the central prison of Yaounde, Cameroon.
In May 2010, representatives of the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the Association of Journalists’ Trade Unions in Central Africa (USYPAC) and CJTU, had spoken to the government of Cameroon to regarding the aforesaid issues.
IFJ has now officially gone on record forcing the Cameroonian government to, “help restore calm by releasing all the journalists in prison, suspend all legal proceedings against journalists and quickly launch an independent investigation about the death of Bibi Ngota and the detention conditions, for better relations between media and the government in Cameroon”.
