Cameroon President fingered in death of wife’s lover… By Emmanuel Mayah
Paul Biya, sit-tight President of Cameroon, has been fingered in the death of his wife’s lover, a young man widely known to be the best friend of one of the President’s sons.
A week after the 80-year-old President, who has been in power since 1982, shut down dozens of churches in his latest exhibition of absolute power, sordid details of extra-judicial killings, secret detention, torture and imprisonment have continued to emerge as tools employed by Paul Biya to crush not just business and political enemies but any other kind of rivalry, including a defenceless ex-lover of his youthful wife and First Lady Chantal Pulcherie Vigouroux Biya.
A source (names withheld) told Reporters-360 that the First Lady’s lover, with whom she had a daughter named Brenda, was a popular translator and compeer known as Paul. Efforts to ascertain his surname was unsuccessful at press time; the task made more difficult by the fact that some Francophone tribes in Cameroon have only one name even on official documents. However, the dead lover, popular as a translator at international conferences in Yauonde and Doula, was made even more popular by his social status as the best friend of one of the President’s sons, Franck Emmanuel Biya. He was a family friend of the Biya’s and a regular visitor to the Presidential Palace and one easily accepted into the household by the additional fact that he shared first name with the President. It is said that it was in one of his social visits to his friend Franck Emmanuel, with company of his girlfriend Chantal Vigouroux, that President Biya spotted the beautiful half-caste Chantal who is of a French expatriate father and a Cameroonian mother. Unknown to the young man who had happily introduced his fiancée to the President, his life would never be the same again.
Biya quickly went to work, deploying his powers and money to woo and marry Chantal shortly after the death of his first wife. Though Paul the compeer knew it would be foolhardy to stop Chantal from marrying the President, he was determined that nobody would take his daughter away from him. Biya’s response was to reduce his wife’s lover to a wreck. First, his daughter was seized from him. Then somebody made sure he never got employment again anywhere in Cameroon just as he was never allowed to see his daughter again. He was hounded by security agents and stopped from leaving the country to pursue life elsewhere. One day, Paul the Compeer was found dead. The police said he got drunk, tripped and fell to his death. Family members believe he was murdered.
The Cameroon source told Reporters-360 that “that young man met an unfortunate end. There is no proof to show he was murdered, no autopsy or something like that; those who really know the true story of Chantal Vigouroux are afraid to speak out. But one thing is clear: there were deliberate efforts to delete the dirty past of the First Lady from the mind of the public.”
war with son
Following the death of his best friend, the President’s son Franck Emmanuel Biya, shockingly renounced his father and declared him his personal enemy. To this day, efforts of family members including those of traditional chiefs to settle the rift between father and son could at best be said to have produced marginal success. The unforgiving posture of the son, who has since relocated to Monaco, has made many Cameroonians to conclude his son is convinced of the President’s complicity in the death of his best friend. While Franck Emmanuel Biya may have been shattered by the unnecessary killing of his friend, a few insiders in Cameroon’s political circuit insist he suspects foul play in the death of his own mother who was hardly pronounced dead before Biya took Chantal Vigouroux to the altar.
Until she met and married the President, Chantal Vigouroux was a former usherette, hotel receptionist and courtesan. In 2010, an unauthorized biographer, Bertrand Teyou, published a book “The belle of the Banana Republic: Chantal Biya, from the street to the Palace”. Chantal, famous for her exotic wardrobe, saw to it that he was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment. The First Lady, in a demonstration of her own political powers, ensured that her mother, Rosette Marie Mboutchouang, had a landslide victory in election to emerge Mayor of Bangou.
In a case brought by the Cameroonian state, the author Bertrand Teyou was jailed for “insulting” the President’s wife. Copies of his book were seized and destroyed. Teyou was arrested on 3 November 2010, detained for a week in a central Douala police station and transferred to New Bell prison in the same city. In an astonishingly swift legal process by Cameroonian standards, Teyou was found guilty of ‘insult to character’ and organising an ‘illegal demonstration’, and ordered to pay 2,030,150 CFA (US$4,371) in fines and costs or, in the event of non payment, to spend two years in prison. As he was unable to pay the fine imposed he was re-imprisoned following sentencing.
In prison he suffered health problems linked to poor diet in prison, including severe bleeding from haemorrhoids. According to Teyou, he received medical treatment at Douala General Hospital but only if and when he can pay for it. He said he also had to pay for a space to sleep in prison.
In an interview from his prison cell, Teyou said: “My book is the free expression of a citizen. I hold no grudge against the First Lady but I refuse to live in a country where she has excessive control over the lives of citizens. I cannot stand the fact that our country is rotten and no one seems to be bothered about doing something to turn things around. We are entitled to rise against the injustice that is crippling our country. We cannot let evil go unquestioned. This is the attitude I adopt in my writing. The struggle continues in spite of the travails I am going through right now. Each hurdle reinvigorates me. This system is bad for everyone.”
In response to an email enquiry, a retired technocrat who served in Cameroon’s Foreign Ministry told Reporters-360 thus:
“The truth about Chantal Biya is that she was a free girl in Yaounde and because of her colour and looks was highly sought-after by the jet set in the national capital. These included ministers and their children. She was always a hostess at international conferences and I have myself once been ushered into a seat at the Yaounde conference centre by her. Another ex-lover linked to Biya’s wife is the son of former national TV General Manager Gervais Mendo Ze. The young man Mendo Ze is now in prison in the US allegedly on drug-related charges.”
Kenya: Former Head of Public Service Ambassador Francis Muthaura is back in government. Muthaura is the new chairman of the LAPSSET Corridor Development Authority with effect from January 2014. Muthaura’s appointment is contained in a special gazette notice (vol. CXV – No. 182) dated December 27, 2013. In the gazette notice, President Uhuru Kenyatta has appointed 26 heads of parastatals. Among those appointed include former MPs and retired civil servants. Former Marakwet East MP Linah Kilimo will head the Anti Female Genital Mutilation Board for three years starting next month. Also bouncing back is former Kibwezi MP Agnes Ndetei who will chair the National Drought Management Authority Board. Philip Kaloki, a former MP from the same constituency who unsuccessfully vied for governorship of Makueni County in the March elections, will now head the Kenya Medical Training College Board. Matu Wamae has been reappointed as chair of the New Kenya Cooperative Creameries for a further period of three years, while Col Geoffrey Kingangi will head the National Cereals and Produce Board. The appointments, which take effect from January 14, will also see Terry Ryan take over as chair of the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, while Taraiya ole Kores will chair the Kenya Meat Commission. The new chair of the Board of Directors of the Consolidated Bank is Benson Ateng, while Mr Mohamud Mohamed Ali will now chair the Board of the National Hospital Insurance Fund. Sam Kona will head the Kerio Valley Development Authority, while former Makueni MP Peter Kiilu will chair the Water Resource Management Authority. The Lake Basin Development Authority and the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation will now be headed by Onyango Oloo and Julius Kones, respectively. Mr Abdul Bahari takes over as chair of the Tana and Athi River Development Authority, while Joseph Musebe steps in as chair of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. Kitambi Digore will head the Kenya Maritime Authority while Sammy Tangus takes over as chair of the Postal Corporation of Kenya. Mr Edwin Yina is the new chair of the Kenya Information and Communication Board of directors. Samwel Nyageso will chair the Kenya National Library Services Board, while Sam Njonde and Peter Kinya will head the National Sports Fund Board of Trustees, and the Kenya National Trading Corporation respectively
.
Kenneth Sigilai will chair the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company, while Titus Ibui is the new chair of the Kenya Leather Development Council Board. The Geothermal Development Company will be chaired by Simon Gicharu, while Daniel Kiongo takes over as chair of the Kenya Pipeline Company.
Read more at: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?article …
One day the poor will have nothing to eat but the rich. That day is getting closer.
Kenya Stockholm Blog 
Cameroon President fingered in death of wife’s lover… By Emmanuel Mayah
Paul Biya, sit-tight President of Cameroon, has been fingered in the death of his wife’s lover, a young man widely known to be the best friend of one of the President’s sons.
A week after the 80-year-old President, who has been in power since 1982, shut down dozens of churches in his latest exhibition of absolute power, sordid details of extra-judicial killings, secret detention, torture and imprisonment have continued to emerge as tools employed by Paul Biya to crush not just business and political enemies but any other kind of rivalry, including a defenceless ex-lover of his youthful wife and First Lady Chantal Pulcherie Vigouroux Biya.
A source (names withheld) told Reporters-360 that the First Lady’s lover, with whom she had a daughter named Brenda, was a popular translator and compeer known as Paul. Efforts to ascertain his surname was unsuccessful at press time; the task made more difficult by the fact that some Francophone tribes in Cameroon have only one name even on official documents. However, the dead lover, popular as a translator at international conferences in Yauonde and Doula, was made even more popular by his social status as the best friend of one of the President’s sons, Franck Emmanuel Biya. He was a family friend of the Biya’s and a regular visitor to the Presidential Palace and one easily accepted into the household by the additional fact that he shared first name with the President. It is said that it was in one of his social visits to his friend Franck Emmanuel, with company of his girlfriend Chantal Vigouroux, that President Biya spotted the beautiful half-caste Chantal who is of a French expatriate father and a Cameroonian mother. Unknown to the young man who had happily introduced his fiancée to the President, his life would never be the same again.
Biya quickly went to work, deploying his powers and money to woo and marry Chantal shortly after the death of his first wife. Though Paul the compeer knew it would be foolhardy to stop Chantal from marrying the President, he was determined that nobody would take his daughter away from him. Biya’s response was to reduce his wife’s lover to a wreck. First, his daughter was seized from him. Then somebody made sure he never got employment again anywhere in Cameroon just as he was never allowed to see his daughter again. He was hounded by security agents and stopped from leaving the country to pursue life elsewhere. One day, Paul the Compeer was found dead. The police said he got drunk, tripped and fell to his death. Family members believe he was murdered.
The Cameroon source told Reporters-360 that “that young man met an unfortunate end. There is no proof to show he was murdered, no autopsy or something like that; those who really know the true story of Chantal Vigouroux are afraid to speak out. But one thing is clear: there were deliberate efforts to delete the dirty past of the First Lady from the mind of the public.”
war with son
Following the death of his best friend, the President’s son Franck Emmanuel Biya, shockingly renounced his father and declared him his personal enemy. To this day, efforts of family members including those of traditional chiefs to settle the rift between father and son could at best be said to have produced marginal success. The unforgiving posture of the son, who has since relocated to Monaco, has made many Cameroonians to conclude his son is convinced of the President’s complicity in the death of his best friend. While Franck Emmanuel Biya may have been shattered by the unnecessary killing of his friend, a few insiders in Cameroon’s political circuit insist he suspects foul play in the death of his own mother who was hardly pronounced dead before Biya took Chantal Vigouroux to the altar.
Until she met and married the President, Chantal Vigouroux was a former usherette, hotel receptionist and courtesan. In 2010, an unauthorized biographer, Bertrand Teyou, published a book “The belle of the Banana Republic: Chantal Biya, from the street to the Palace”. Chantal, famous for her exotic wardrobe, saw to it that he was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment. The First Lady, in a demonstration of her own political powers, ensured that her mother, Rosette Marie Mboutchouang, had a landslide victory in election to emerge Mayor of Bangou.
In a case brought by the Cameroonian state, the author Bertrand Teyou was jailed for “insulting” the President’s wife. Copies of his book were seized and destroyed. Teyou was arrested on 3 November 2010, detained for a week in a central Douala police station and transferred to New Bell prison in the same city. In an astonishingly swift legal process by Cameroonian standards, Teyou was found guilty of ‘insult to character’ and organising an ‘illegal demonstration’, and ordered to pay 2,030,150 CFA (US$4,371) in fines and costs or, in the event of non payment, to spend two years in prison. As he was unable to pay the fine imposed he was re-imprisoned following sentencing.
In prison he suffered health problems linked to poor diet in prison, including severe bleeding from haemorrhoids. According to Teyou, he received medical treatment at Douala General Hospital but only if and when he can pay for it. He said he also had to pay for a space to sleep in prison.
In an interview from his prison cell, Teyou said: “My book is the free expression of a citizen. I hold no grudge against the First Lady but I refuse to live in a country where she has excessive control over the lives of citizens. I cannot stand the fact that our country is rotten and no one seems to be bothered about doing something to turn things around. We are entitled to rise against the injustice that is crippling our country. We cannot let evil go unquestioned. This is the attitude I adopt in my writing. The struggle continues in spite of the travails I am going through right now. Each hurdle reinvigorates me. This system is bad for everyone.”
In response to an email enquiry, a retired technocrat who served in Cameroon’s Foreign Ministry told Reporters-360 thus:
“The truth about Chantal Biya is that she was a free girl in Yaounde and because of her colour and looks was highly sought-after by the jet set in the national capital. These included ministers and their children. She was always a hostess at international conferences and I have myself once been ushered into a seat at the Yaounde conference centre by her. Another ex-lover linked to Biya’s wife is the son of former national TV General Manager Gervais Mendo Ze. The young man Mendo Ze is now in prison in the US allegedly on drug-related charges.”
Kenya: Former Head of Public Service Ambassador Francis Muthaura is back in government. Muthaura is the new chairman of the LAPSSET Corridor Development Authority with effect from January 2014. Muthaura’s appointment is contained in a special gazette notice (vol. CXV – No. 182) dated December 27, 2013. In the gazette notice, President Uhuru Kenyatta has appointed 26 heads of parastatals. Among those appointed include former MPs and retired civil servants. Former Marakwet East MP Linah Kilimo will head the Anti Female Genital Mutilation Board for three years starting next month. Also bouncing back is former Kibwezi MP Agnes Ndetei who will chair the National Drought Management Authority Board. Philip Kaloki, a former MP from the same constituency who unsuccessfully vied for governorship of Makueni County in the March elections, will now head the Kenya Medical Training College Board. Matu Wamae has been reappointed as chair of the New Kenya Cooperative Creameries for a further period of three years, while Col Geoffrey Kingangi will head the National Cereals and Produce Board. The appointments, which take effect from January 14, will also see Terry Ryan take over as chair of the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, while Taraiya ole Kores will chair the Kenya Meat Commission. The new chair of the Board of Directors of the Consolidated Bank is Benson Ateng, while Mr Mohamud Mohamed Ali will now chair the Board of the National Hospital Insurance Fund. Sam Kona will head the Kerio Valley Development Authority, while former Makueni MP Peter Kiilu will chair the Water Resource Management Authority. The Lake Basin Development Authority and the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation will now be headed by Onyango Oloo and Julius Kones, respectively. Mr Abdul Bahari takes over as chair of the Tana and Athi River Development Authority, while Joseph Musebe steps in as chair of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. Kitambi Digore will head the Kenya Maritime Authority while Sammy Tangus takes over as chair of the Postal Corporation of Kenya. Mr Edwin Yina is the new chair of the Kenya Information and Communication Board of directors. Samwel Nyageso will chair the Kenya National Library Services Board, while Sam Njonde and Peter Kinya will head the National Sports Fund Board of Trustees, and the Kenya National Trading Corporation respectively
.
Kenneth Sigilai will chair the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company, while Titus Ibui is the new chair of the Kenya Leather Development Council Board. The Geothermal Development Company will be chaired by Simon Gicharu, while Daniel Kiongo takes over as chair of the Kenya Pipeline Company.
Read more at: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?article …
One day the poor will have nothing to eat but the rich. That day is getting closer.