Barrister Christopher Ndong Nveh has told the BBC that Southern Cameroon lawyers will resume work only if certain conditions are met. The respected man of law also revealed that “As long as our fellow lawyers and demonstrators are not released, we will not resume work.”

Barrister Christopher Ndong was reacting to a declaration made by a Francophone Bâtonnier, Jackson Ngnie Kamga, the so-called President of the Bar Association of Cameroon that Southern Cameroon lawyers will resume their activities on the 2^nd of May 2017. Jackson Kamga’s CPDM teleguided pronouncements also stated that the decision was reached after an effective implementation of the recommendation of the Ad Hoc Committee that were addressed by Prime Minister Philemon Yang and approved by the 84 year old dictator from his hotel apartment in Geneva in Switzerland.

Speaking of the recent decisions announced by the Minister of Justice, Laurent Esso, Barrister Ndong pointed out that the Justice Minister was merely playing games with the Anglophone lawyers. “You cannot make a mockery of lawyers. This means that these measures must go through a bill and table in the National Assembly to obtain a law. In this way, we will see the good faith of the government.” added Barrister Ndong.

In a bid to manage the Southern Cameroons crisis using CPDM guerilla tactics, the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime got Barrister Jackson Ngnie Kamga to announce that the Anglophone lawyers have agreed to end their strike action. Jackson Kamga published a statement on the 9^th of April that received wide condemnation from the Common law Lawyers and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.

The Yaounde Francophone regime also announced several fake measures among them the creation of a Common Law section at the Higher Institute of Administration and Magistracy, ENAM.  The establishment of a Faculty of Juridical and Political Sciences at the University of Buea, the creation of a Department of English Law in the Universities of Douala, Ngaoundere, Dschang and Maroua, the creation of an Institute of Judicial Studies for the training of lawyers, notaries and judicial officers; the redeployment of judges taking account Cameroon’s linguistic criteria; the increase in the number of English-speaking Magistrates in the Supreme Court.  Southern Cameroon lawyers are now asking Mr. Biya to table all these through a bill in the National Assembly and obtain a law.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai