My Arrest Was A Calculated Attempt To Rig Elections - Asapngu

Interviewed By Olive Ejang T. Ngoh

Asapngu is the Kumba Electoral District Chairman of the SDF party. He was arrested on July 22 at about 6 pm, during the legislative and municipal elections. In this exclusive interview, he says Meme SDO, Magloire Abath Zangbwala, ordered his arrest. Asapngu also castigates the administrators, CPDM militants and security personnel for perpetrating electoral fraud on a large scale. Read On.

How do you assess the conduct of the just-ended municipal and legislative elections in Kumba?

Asapngu: This is the worst elections that have been organised in Cameroon and Kumba in particular. They also witnessed the worst of administrators who facilitated the rigging process.

The DO for Kumba Central gave strict instructions that people could vote without ID cards and this encouraged multiple voting.

Do you have any evidence of fraud and multiple voting?

Every Kumba voter will bear with me that more than 2000 ghost voters' cards were caught with CPDM militants in Kumba. Some of them were caught at the Community Development School, Kumba, in front the SDO and when he was informed, he vamoosed.

Our cry is that how did the CPDM get the voters' cards? The DO for Kumba Central, David Kouam, should be accountable for this. He out rightly sidelined the commission in charge of distributing voters' cards and appointed his own commission.

This commission did nothing to ensure that people collect their cards, and instead handed them to the CPDM for multiple voting. Above all, a state of emergency was declared in Kumba.

In Mambanda, CPDM thugs beat SDF polling agents and sent them away from polling stations and the security did nothing. There was general multiple voting before these security officials did nothing.

When you talk of state of emergency, what do you mean?

About 500 troops were brought into Kumba on Election Day and they all voted for the CPDM here, even though they never registered in Kumba. The officers voted several times as they wished.

There were security forces everywhere and the road was blocked after every 10 metres. Though I was representing my party and the parliamentary candidate, the police blocked my vehicle at the town green area from entering Kumba I.

I was also refused access into Mambanda in Kumba III though my vehicle had a pass.

You were arrested on July 22 during the elections. What actually happened?

Zangbwala had threatened me several times before the elections that he would arrest me, and Ekale Mukete, Meme I CPDM Section President had pronounced that for CPDM to succeed in Kumba, I should be arrested.

Earlier on, Chief D.J Ngoh and Etienne Zemenjuoh of the CPDM party, formed ploys against me, urging my arrest. My arrest was no surprise to me but a calculated attempt to rig the elections in Kumba.

Anyway, it was about 6 pm that day when the Commissioner of Central Police Station, Andre Fils Ela Menye, met me and said the SDO wanted to see me. We all drove to the SDO's office where the Commissioner abandoned me and left, saying the SDO was busy and would see me later.

After staying there for several hours, Zangbwala came out and said I had a gun with me and I was shooting people. I was embarrassed at this because I hadn't even a knife. My vehicle had not been searched, so how could they draw such a conclusion about me?

I started reasoning that this was a trap to arrest me and I stayed mute. I recall that I was surrounded by security officials in the SDO's office. At midnight, the SDO returned and told me, "wonna anglophones, I hearsay wonna like case plenti.

So you can go for police and make a statement so that you people can go to court." The police officers then took me to their station and recorded statements from me up to about 3 a.m.

They kept me in detention until 7 pm on July 23 when I was released.

What are some of the questions the police asked you?

They asked me if I ordered the population to stop ballot boxes to be carried to the DO's office. In reply, I told them I was arrested before the counting of votes, so how could I instruct the population on that?

They also asked me if I ordered the population to block the Company Commander of Gendarmerie's vehicle. They accused me that I carried people in my car and was shooting people with a gun in Anglican Area.

I told them that the tight security in Kumba that day could not permit anyone to carry more than two persons in his or her car. How then did I carry ten people to Anglican with all the checkpoints?

It is alleged the SDO said you were planning to burn his office and that of the DO. Is that true?

I only got a phone call form the SDO on July 24 while I was in my secretariat that I was rallying people to burn offices. I told him that I was tired of blackmail. What else do they want Asapngu to do?

I was sitting quietly in my office and the SDO was threatening me over the phone that I was rallying people to burn offices. Why should I burn offices or why are they afraid if their consciences are clear?

It is pathetic that Zangbwala should rely on hearsay. As an administrator, I believe when somebody is accused of something, he should be investigated.

I told the SDO it was better he arrests me and keeps in the cell than to threaten my life continuously. I told him that if our results had not been changed, why was he afraid?

My agents in Mambanda were assaulted in front of police officers and nobody complained. The results of one ballot box in Mambanda were burnt and half ballot papers carried to the DO, how is he compiling the results now?

What do you intend to do in the face of all these?

What is most pathetic is that the SDO has suspended the counting commission for Kumba II, headed by Father Bazil Sede, because the SDF won there.

We are not creating problems but history and God will judge us. I call on the population of Kumba to remain calm.

Comments

[rexon]

"At midnight, the SDO returned and told me, "wonna anglophones, I hearsay wonna like case plenti"

This man is above the law. He is provoking Southern Cameroonians even in our own land. If not of the SDF, we would have wiped all these criminals long ago. They are mocking us even in our territory.

[Legima Doh]

Stay in the Sdf and continue complaining I think is what the Sdf forerunners are doing now.Within la republique,the sdf complains are going to last forever.The insult is just so unbearable.The hanging around Mr Biya's corridors by our Sdfers and so on is totally unacceptable.

Peace Upon OUr Land

Legima Doh,
SCNC

[Ernest]

This stupid DO. He can abuse us in our own area afterall power is in their hands. God will fight for us for we are not going to go into war with them.