Former Cameroon Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni has been
sentenced to 20 years in prison for pilfering millions of dollars while
in office.
Inoni, who served as prime minister from 2004 to
2009 and sat on the boards of many state-run corporations, was arrested
in April 2012 and charged with embezzling $582,557 in 2003.
He denied the charges.
The former prime minister, alongside his
co-accused Jean Marie Atangana Mebara, also handed a 20 year jail
sentence, were ordered to pay a fine of $175,000.
The sum represented dues that had to be paid into
the coffers of the Cameroon subsidiary of London-based firm Airport
Portfolio Management (APM).
APM, which is represented in Cameroon by Asset
Portfolio Management (APM), supervised the auditing of the leasing of
airplanes by defunct national carrier Cameroon Airlines (CAMAIR).
The court said Inoni, who during the same period
chaired the board of APM’s local subsidiary, failed to respect the
country’s laws on the award of the auditing contracts.
The former prime minister’s younger brother is said to have been holding a 10 per cent stake in the Cameroon branch of APM.
According to prosecutors, that indicated that APM was a shadow company used to loot the state’s coffers.
Was shocked
Inoni is also accused of swindling $2,841,521 from the state in a separate charge.
The amount represents a surplus on $8,128,540
disbursed by state-run oil company SNH (National Hydrocarbons
Corporation) to CAMAIR as payment of arrears for airplanes leased from
Ansett Worldwide, an American company.
The transaction is said to have been made via Standard Chartered Bank Cameroon where the former premier was board chairman.
Another co-accused Otélé Essomba was acquitted.
Mebara was secretary-general at the presidency and
board chairman of SNH at the time while Mr Essomba was the deputy
general manager of APM in Cameroon where he had a 30 per cent share.
The court, however, dropped three other charges against the former prime minister.
One of them had linked him to the botched purchase of a presidential plane christened the “Albatross Affair”.
APM’s British-born director general Kevin Walls was handed a life sentence in absentia.
The whereabouts of Walls have remained unknown since the case came to light.
The defence counsel for Atangana, Mr Etta Bissong,
said he was shocked and disappointed by the verdict and would
immediately lodge an appeal.
SOURCE: AFRICAN REVIEW
SOURCE: AFRICAN REVIEW
