Akere Muna filed filed complaints against Genclore

By Livinus Njume Esambe (PhD)

The former President of the Cameroon Bar Association and former vice-president of Transparency International, Akere Muna has filed complaints against three companies in Cameroon for alleged corruption, money laundering, tax fraud and custom frauds. The companies involved in the scandal include, the National Oil Refinery Company of Cameroon, (SONARA) Limbe, Glencore Exploration Cameroon Limited-Douala and the National Hydrocarbon Company, (SNH)-Yaounde. In a press release dated April 11, 2023 and signed by the spokesperson for Akere T. Muna, Paul Mahel, reveals that Akere Muna has submitted three separate complaints at the Wouri High Court in Douala, the Mfoundi High Court in Yaounde and at the Senior State Council of legal affairs department Limbe, urging the government to investigate the cases.

The press release further states that ‘in accordance with Article 145 of the Cameroonian Criminal Procedure Code, (Law No. ?2005 of July 27, 2005), Akere Muna has filed a written information with the three legal authorities mentioned above, disclosing facts that constitute offenses committed between 2011 and 2018 by agents and or employees of SONARA, SNH and Glencore.’ It evoked that Glencoe commodity trading company had earlier admitted to have been involved in corruption following their conviction by the courts of the United Kingdom and the United State of America. Akere Muna is quoted in the press release to have said that he is ‘ready and available to give details and information concerning the cases.’ It should be recalled when Glencore commodity trading company, pleaded guilty to bribing Cameroons National Oil Refining Company, SONARA, and Petroleum Depot, SNH on Tuesday, June 21, 2022, Akere Muna wrote a letter on May 27, 2022 to the President of the National Anti-Graft Commission (CONAC); Diedonné Massi Gams; ‘to open a one of a kind investigation into this sordid affair that involves two of Cameroon's most important public enterprises.’

Before U.S. courts, Glencore admitted that between 2007 and 2018, it and its subsidiaries paid approximately?$79.6 million to intermediary companies to obtain undue benefits. The goal was to obtain and retain contracts with public and state-controlled entities in the West African countries of Nigeria, Cameroon, C?te d'Ivoire, and Equatorial Guinea. The multinational has admitted to concealing bribe payments by entering into false consulting agreements; paying inflated invoices and using intermediary companies to bribe foreign officials. In Cameroon, Glencore claims to have paid CFA7 billion in bribes to senior officials of SNH and Sonara to secure oil contracts. Barrister Akere Muna has insisted saying, “Enough is enough”, the government needs to act now with this glaring confirmation from Glencore. Since the alarm was raised, the Biya regime has not made a statement to that effect.?The former General Manager of SONARA, Charles Metouck who is currently in jail for mismanagement, said he never traded such deals with Glencore. This is coming at a time when a document surfaced on social media, allegedly revealing that the monthly salary of the Director General of the National Hydrocarbon company earns F CFA 25.000.000. The same document which CNA got from social media reveals that the least worker at the company earns F CFA 900.000.

"