Junior Ngombe , the youth activist, ‘abducted’ in Douala and detained at SED in Yaounde, for incitement to rebellion and propagation of false information has been freed on bail.
The 23-year-old youth, a barber by profession who was active on Tiktok, denouncing the poor management of the country by the Biya regime but also mobilizing youths for voter registration to change the statuesque was freed following the intervention of his lawyers led by Barrister Akere Muna but would have to continue appearing in court as a free man, because the charges against him have not been dropped.
He risks four years imprisonment if found guilty.
His abduction since a week ago was condemned by Cameroonian opinion leaders as an affront to freedom of expression, with Cameroonians in France protesting at President Paul Biya’s hotel in Paris calling for his release.
It took the intervention of Batonnier Akere Muna and a college of other lawyers acting pro bono, coupled with calls for his immediate release by political leaders and the civil society for Ngombe to walk out free from his cell at the Gendarmerie Headquarter.
Reacting to Ngombe’s release, Alex Gustave Azebaze, an opinion leader, regretted he was arrested in the first place, noting that peaceful expression of opinions and ideas ought not be criminalized.
Human Rights Watch, for its part, called for the immediate dropping of charges against the youth activist. The Cameroonian government ought to support calls for peaceful reforms instead of clamping down on freedom of expression, the rights group has declared.
Meanwhile, Ngombe was encouraged by Barrister Christian Bomo Ntimbane to maintain his head high and never abandon the battle for social justice in his country. In his reaction, Mamadou Mota, first vice-president of MRC, said mobilisation behind the young activist was great “Thanks for this mobilization which laid bared and shamed enemies of justice, instruments of shame,” he wrote on his Facebook account.
Before Ngombe’s release he was grilled on Tuesday at the SCRJ/SED and was referred to the Government Commissioner’s Office during the day.
Mr. Hippolyte B.T MELI, speaking on behalf of the Sylvain SOUOP Collective, wrote: “I met with the Deputy Government Commissioner, Capt. ZéAkono, who is in charge of handling the case, and he allowed me to speak with our new client in the Tribunal’s security cell. He is in a feverish state and has still not received a visit from a doctor or taken any medication. The consent form from the UN OHCHR that we brought to him was filled out and signed by him for proper use.” But he returned to the SCRJ/SED for further investigations. It was therefore with great relief that news of his release was welcomed shortly after midday yesterday.
