By Doh Bertrand Nua
The long wait and anxiety as to who will finally become the pioneer City Mayor of Kumba in Meme Division, South West region is over.
A new management team was elected to head the affairs of the Council for the next five years.
The hotly contested election saw incumbent Victor Ngoh Nkelle crushed by Gregory Mewanu Ntemoyock.
Gregory Mewanu, Pioneer Kba City Mayor
The outcome of the election puts an end to Ngoh Nkelle’s seven months stay as City Mayor-elect and 11 years stay at the helm of the City Council as Government Delegate (he was appointed February 2009).
The election took place during an Extra-Ordinary Session which held Thursday 22 October 2020 at the council hall.
It was convened by Meme SDO, Chamberlain Ntou’ou Ndong after the Administrative Judge of the Supreme Court on 24 September 2020 cancelled the election that brought Victor Nkelle Ngoh to the helm of the council.
The Administrative Judge ruled in favour of Greg Mewanu Ntemoyock, who had appealed the 26 March 2020 verdict of the SW Administrative Court, upholding results of the 3 March 2020 election.
Mewanu got 61 votes as against 11 null votes out of the 75 votes cast by the councillors of Kumba I, II and III who make up the city council board.
This followed outcome of earlier party primaries that were conducted in which Mewanu emerged winner with 43 votes while Ngoh Nkelle got 32.
The second election saw Balike Esuka Victorine espe Ebanja and Sako Umana Mcmillan retained as 1st and 2nd deputies respectively.
The primaries were conducted in keeping with party rules. It unfolded under the watchful eyes of Minister Paul Tassong and Fru Jonathan, two CPDM Central Committee members who were sent by party hierarchy to ensure its smooth conduct alongside the MP for Kumba Central, Tabot Lawson Bakia who took charge of discipline in the process.
Ngoh Threatens Court Action?
Ngoh Nkelle raised allegations indicating that Mewanu is an ex-convict and as such was not qualified for the post.
He threatened to petition the results of the polls if Mewanu wasn’t disqualified from the process.
Unfortunately for him, the eldest councillor, Eseme Akwo Moses who chaired the session ordered a continuation of the election while urging him to pursue his conviction allegations in court after the polls.
This added to explanations from Mewanu’s lawyer, Barrister Andy Tabi, who, said if his client was convicted then it wasn’t a felony and that after three years, he has the right to obtain a rehabilitation (entitled to a certificate of non-conviction).
Bleak future for Ngoh
Informed observers have posited that it will only be foolhardy and perhaps, an act of revolt and volte face, for Ngoh Nkelle to flout the party’s choice and that of majority councillors to question the outcome of the polls and the winner.
This, they say might further anger party hierarchy to open investigations into Ngoh's 11 years 'unproductive' stay at the council as Government Delegate and his handling of financial dealings this long.
Allegations are rife that Yaounde wasn’t happy with the stagnation of Kumba in terms of development in the reign of Ngoh.
However, reports from Ngoh's close aides have reveal he won't head to court to push his allegations indicating Mewanu is an ex-convict.
Understanding the drama to rerun:
The Administrative Judge of the Supreme Court on 24 September squashed the 26 March 2020 verdict of the SW Administrative Court, which upheld Victor Nkelle’s election as pioneer Kumba City Mayor and ordered for a rerun within 30 days (Victor Ngoh Nkelle had 38 votes; Greg Mewanu 31 votes and Ekoko Muelle Stephen 6 votes in the cancelled polls).
The verdict was in favour of Mewanu who had prayed the court to review the Buea judgment and do justice by cancelling the election and ordering a re-run.
Mewanu said the 3 March 2020 polls was marred by gross irregularities, adding that the process was hijacked by Meme SDO in utter violation of the law on decentralization and did not respect the internal rules of the CPDM party which invested the councillors for the municipal election.
He equally decried bribery and corruption of electors (councillors), and the lack of transparency that mired the 3 March election.
The councillors back in March refused to allow the Permanent CPDM Divisional Co-ordinator, Justice Benjamin Mutanga Itoe, to read the name of the candidate invested by the party for the post of City Mayor.
This according to keen observers was in utter violation of the internal rules of the party.
Worth noting is the fact that most if not all candidates for CPDM-run councils were invested by the party.
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