UPC PRESS RELEASE ON THE ASSASSINATION OF MARTINEZ ZOGO!

UPC – PA

PATRIOTIC ALLIANCE

MILITANTS OF THE UPC

PRESS RELEASE

The militants of Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC) have just learned, with great consternation and filled with deep emotion, of the senseless and disgusting assassination of Mr. Arsène Salomon Mbani ZOGO, aka Martinez ZOGO, Publications Director at Amplitude FM.

Kidnapped on January 17, just in front of the hermetically closed gate of the Nkolfong Gendarmerie, the famed journalist was tortured then atrociously assassinated by his executioners. His body, already in a state of advanced decay and presenting several torture symptoms, was found on Sunday, 22 January 2023 at an isolated and abandoned area within the outskirts of Yaounde.

This hideous crime is a clear testimony and a glaring reflection of the bestial and monstrous behavior of its perpetrators as well as their silent partners and sponsors, extremely keen on covering the tracks of the long list of economic crimes that they have committed; crimes that Mr. Martinez ZOGO was actively in the process of divulging and exposing to the general public. It is only but appropriate that we remind ourselves of how Kamerun has fast become a champion nation of sham commissions of investigations, the results of which have remained darkly mysterious: to cite a few: those of Father Engelbert Mveng, Bishops Yves Plumey and Jean Marie Benoit Bala as well as those of

Messrs. BIBI GOTA, Jules KOUM KOUM, Samuel WAZIZI, etc.

The militants of Union des Populations du Cameroun and of the Patriotic Alliance:

• Remain completely indignant of this criminal and despicable act perpetrated on this journalist who was a symbol of the freedom of speech, a right that had been acquired through the blood and thick and thin of thousands of Kamerunians,

• Condemn without the slightest reservation whatsoever, such a gruesome assassination coming at a time when our political and security environment are both in dire straits,

• Demand that the Kamerun authorities carry out the necessary investigations so that those responsible for this crime, both the executioners as well as their sponsors, can be brought to justice.

• Call on the rest of the Kamerun population to stay vigilant in the face of the impending muzzling of any kind as well as an attempt at stifling the freedom of information, the gagging of the media and of the press as well as the restriction of the freedom of expression. A cherished freedom, indispensable in any worthy democracy.

Released this Jan 23, 2023,

And on behalf of all of our collective Members:

Comrades:

• Daniel Yagnye Tom, UPC Special Representative in Central and Southern Africa. President of the Patriotic Alliance.
• Jean Bahebeck, Group Leader of UPC Fundamentalist Group,
• Pouhè Pouhè, Member of the Patriotic Alliance Political Bureau,
• Paul NDJAMA, Organizing Secretary of UPC – Patriotic Alliance.