A young man unjustly sentenced to 15 years for aiding and abetting secession has been freed thanks to the intervention of Barrister Akere Muna.
The young man, identified as Vitalis, was released at the same time the lawyer of international renown was fighting for the freedom of Junior Ngombe,the youth activist ‘abducted’ from Douala and detained at SED, the gendarmerie headquarters in Yaounde, for speaking out against bad governance in Cameroon.
“ I was relieved to see Vitalis released as a free man two days ago on the 30th of July. He had been sentenced to 15 years two years ago for failure to report an offense on secession. Vitalis used to transport palm oil from farms to customers between Buea, Muyuka, and Limbe. He was stopped at a police checkpoint, his phones were confiscated, and he was accused of being a spy for the Ambazonian secessionists. Despite the violation of laws during the examination of his phones and the absence of the supposed expert in court, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. I appealed the case, and the Court of Appeal reduced his sentence to just one year for failure to report a crime. Vitalis is now reunited with his family in Limbe. This was a case I fought passionately for, advocating for the rights of a Cameroonian whose future was clearly at stake”, Akere Muna wrote on X.
