THE BUEA MILITARY COURT FREES DETAINED NURSING MOTHER AFTER 16 MONTHS
Antoinette Kongnso, Ex-girlfriend of F. M. No Pity Pays 65,000 FRS, Gains Freedom.
Antoinette Kongnso, one of the victims of the excesses of Moja Moja in Buea, has regained freedom from the colonial military Court after being unlawfully detained for 16 months. She gained her freedom only after paying the court the sum of 65, 000 FCFA. She was nabbed because she was once the girlfriend of Mbashie Clement, an Ambazonian fighter. At the time of her abduction, she was pregnant and taken without any warrant by the overzealous BIR element Moja Moja. On Wednesday, February 15, 2023, the same Colonial Buea military Court that has held her for the act of terrorism declared her not guilty, but guilty of not reporting actions of terrorism. She was then sentenced to 16 months with a fine of 65, 000frs. 16 months that she had already served in her pre-trial detention. This is how the crazy colonial LRC judiciary system operates. They arrest without a warrant and with no evidence to their claims.
Antoinette Kongnso knew Mbashie Clement when he was a bike rider. Yet she is deprived of her right to freedom because her one-time boyfriend has become an Ambazonian fighter.
Is it any fault of hers?
The kangaroo Buea Military Court on February 15 pronounced a 16-month sentence on detained nursing mother, Antoinette Kongnso, alongside a fine of FCFA 65,000. But she was asked to pay just the fine, as she has already served her prison term during the pre-trial detention. Kongnso, who has been detained since October 2, 2021, was found guilty of “failure to report” terrorism, said Barrister Ewule Lyonga, who was at the court.
“Because she had already spent 16 months in pre-trial detention, she is just expected to pay the fine of FCFA 65,000 for her to go home with her family,” Barrister Ewule said.
Antoinette Kongso was charged for failing to report the “terrorist” activities of Clement Mbashie popularly called No Pity, an Ambazonian fighter in the Northern Zone of Ambazonia whom she dated some years back. Barrister Ewule Lyonga and other lawyers who have been championing the case had submitted to the court that her arrest and detention were unlawful. Kongnso was eight months pregnant when she was arbitrarily arrested from her home in Buea by a military officer popularly called Moja Moja. According to Barrister Tamfu Richard, another advocate who has been calling for her release, Moja Moja abused and tortured Antoinette Kongnso before forcefully bundling her to the gendarmerie brigade without an arrest warrant.
He and other human rights lawyers initiated several legal battles to secure her release but to no avail. Wednesday’s decision by the Buea Military Court gives them the much-desired justice they have been seeking on behalf of the nursing mother, whose innocent baby has spent its first year in prison
