Due to distance, they could not be in court on Tuesday. Case adjourned for February 25.

Hearing for the case between the State of Cameroon against Marcus Ndumbe Mbessa, Charles Etah Njoh and the enterprise “Njoh and Sons Distribution” could not start yesterday February 5 at the Special Criminal Court because the witnesses for the prosecution were not present during the court session. The legal department said the witnesses’ places of residence are far from Yaounde. Because of this, the head of the college of Judges, Mr Justice Abednego Bea Kala decided that the case be adjourned to February 25 according to the wish of the legal department.
Appearing for the Legal Department, Advocate General, Richard Wanki, said one of the witnesses who is the former Senior Divisional Officer (SDO) for Lebialem in the South West Region, is now the SDO for Mayo-Rey Division in the North Region of the country. The second witness who is the Divisional Controller of Finance for the Lebialem Division is in Menji, in the South-West Region and the third witness is the former Divisional Treasurer for Lebialem Division but current Deputy Treasurer General for the East Region at the Bertoua Regional Treasury. Considering the distance the witnesses have to cover to reach Yaounde, Advocate General, Richard Wanki suggested that the court session be adjourned to February 25. The counsel for the defence requested a longer date, around the first week of March with the argument that they are not sure the witnesses will be available on that day due to their long distances and also because it is financially costly for their clients to bring lawyers to Yaounde each time there is a court session.
The defence counsel also raised the issue that they had already handed in some documents as exhibits in the course of the preliminary inquires which they intend to use now to defend their clients. The lawyers pleaded to the court to grant them permission to withdrawn those exhibits. The court ruled that exhibits (documents) that had been tendered cannot be withdrawn. Mr Justice Abednego Bea Kala said all they need to do is to draw the court’s attention to the exhibits they intend to tender and they will be sorted out from the court’s file when the time arises and admitted in evidence.