The Yaounde Court of First Instance has cut short the honeymoon of Cyrille Wandja Mbanya, husband of renowned Cameroonian actress and model. This follows a court decision passed Tuesday 8 June 2021 remanding him in custody.
The decision was taken by Mengue Bikoro Onguene, presiding judge of the civil case on alleged fraud of nearly FCFA 39 million and breach of trust. The case involves the plaintiff, Dr Erise Mary Dinga, a Douala-based pastor cum philanthropist and the defendant, Cyrille Mbanya Wandja, a US-based Cameroonian pastor.
During her submission in the hearing, the plaintiff told the court she had invested the sum of nearly FCFA 39 million on project to buy equipment and erect a hemodialysis centre in Bonaberi, Douala, which was presented to her by the defendant.
She told the court that the said amount was handed to Mbanya in four different installments out of trust, and based on the fact that he is a pastor and could not be suspected as one who could engage in dubious activities. Erise Mary told the court that she decided to assist in the project which was presented to her by Mbanya with hopes that once executed, it will go a long way to help humanity especially kidney patients in Cameroon.
The plaintiff revealed she handed the sum of FCFA 25 million to the defendant herself as custom dues for the equipment, FCFA 4 million as rent for office space which was paid to him by the manager of her company, FCFA 8 million for bank account/papers works at the level at Prime Minister’s office which she handed to the defendant herself and FCFA 2 million to hire a truck to transport the equipment, handed to defendant by her personal assistant of the plaintiff.
Erise Mary said she would only realize several months later that the projected she invested in was not realized, the machines not acquired and with no possibility of it being executed in the near future. Responding to questions from the State Counsel, Onana Onana, the plaintiff, declared that the deal became more fishy when Mbanya, approached her and demanded for additional FCFA 50 million for other machines that would be needed in the project.
This, she said, pushed her to begin asking petinnent questions which led her to realize that she had invested her money in a project whose realization is not in any way possible as even machines for the project are no way by sight. She would then approach Pastor Mbanya to decline interest in continuing in the project.
She said all requests and attempts to recover close to FCFA 39 million met with stiff resistance from Mbanya. She said the defendant at one point categorically claimed not to have received a franc from her in the name of the project, reason why she seized the court for justice to take its course.
At the start of the hearing, the defense lawyers pleaded for the case to be adjourned. They said they had not yet constituted all the documents needed for the defense because a business license which was to be gotten from Buea was lacking. The presiding judge opted to open the case file after prosecution lawyers insisted.
During examination and cross-examination, the defendant said he had no questions to ask the plaintiff but noted that he will state his case in due time. The defendant’s lawyers, Barristers Kamga Jean Jacques and Tangen Felix, during their cross-examination tried to establish if there was actually a deal between the plaintiff and their client, basing their argument on the fact that traces of the said financial transactions were not to too visible.
The plaintiff’s lawyers, Kamwa Denise and Gervais Armel Nang Mayi, presented to the court a document which contained exhibits of telephone conversations and declarations to that effect between the two as extracted and certified by the National Agency for information and Communication Technology, ANTIC.
Christina Orock Tarkang, one out of the three witnesses presented by the plaintiff was cross-examined during the hearing. The presiding judge, Mengue Bikoro, after listening to both parties decided to remand the defendant in custody following the severity of the matter. The case was adjourned to June 22, 2021. At press time, we could not independently confirm if the defendant had actually been taken to any detention facility in Yaounde based on the decision of the presiding judge.
By Doh Bertrand Nua
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