According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), many Cameroonian intelligence officers have been arrested in connection with the murder of journalist Martinez Zogo, and one suspect confessed to taking part in the murder and has even stated that Cameroon’s justice minister ordered the murder.
Martinez Zogo’s mutilated body was found Sunday, January 22, near Soa, a suburb of Yaoundé.
More than 20 Cameroon’s General Directorate for External Investigations (DGRE) members have been arrested in the capital in the last few days in connection with the murder of Martinez Zogo, whose mutilated body was discovered on January 22. The shocking statements they made to investigators occurred amid a political battle to succeed President Paul Biya, who will turn 90 in a few days and attempts to destabilize the government.
DGRE boss Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, who is among those arrested, has been denying knowledge of the plan to silence Zogo, the presenter of Radio Amplitude FM.
However, his deputy, special operations director Justin Danwe, has made an astonishing statement. He provides a detailed account of the gruesome operation to silence Zogo in confessions he hand-wrote during his interrogation and that RSF has seen. He emerges as the head of the unit that carried it out. Lt. Col. Danwe acknowledges his involvement and claims to have informed his superior. According to his account, Zogo’s murder was a state crime.
He describes in detail how Zogo was followed for a week to establish the pattern of his movements until his abduction on the evening of January 17 by DRGE members, including Danwe, who was in command. Zogo was allegedly taken to a construction site owned by Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, a powerful businessman whom Zogo had accused of embezzlement.
Cameroonian President Paul Biya ordered Thursday, February 2, a probe into the journalist’s abduction and subsequent brutal killing.
In RSF’s 2022 World Press Freedom Index, Cameroon is ranked 118th out of 180 countries.
