Cameroon: Martinez Zogo case investigator faces final hearing

With our correspondent in Yaoundé, Richard Onanena

Colonel Jean-Pierre Otoulou took the stand to defend his investigation. He maintained that he possessed evidence, particularly indicating that journalist Bruno Bidjang, then an associate of businessman Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga—one of the main accused in the case—had attempted to gather information about inquiries targeting him.

While Bidjang sought to prove his innocence, the lawyer for Martinez Zogo’s rightful claimants denounced interference in the proceedings. “It simply reveals what we suspected from the start. He indeed tried to infiltrate this joint commission in an investigation that was supposed to concern him,” stated Maître Calvin Job.

The lieutenant-colonel says he acted on orders

In his exchanges with Colonel Otoulou, Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Danwe of the DGRE admitted to planning the surveillance, abduction, and torture of Cameroonian presenter Martinez Zogo. He also reportedly assembled the operational teams with DGRE personnel. However, he suggested that he had received orders from his superiors.

For the lawyers of Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, director general of general intelligence at the time of the events, no evidence supports Danwe’s account. “He went on a mission without receiving a mission order or funding. When he returned, he made no report to his superiors. Simple conclusion: it was a personal initiative of Colonel Danwe,” dismissed Maître Ndjana Ndjana.

Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Danwe further reaffirmed that the torture of Martinez Zogo did not take place in the Ekang building, owned by Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga.