2024-04-30 09:15:16
Since Thursday evening, Cameroonian social networks have been in turmoil. At issue: a soundtrack attributed to Jean Simplice Eboko, until then acting prosecutor of the Court of First Instance of Douala Bonanjo. In this leaked recording, we hear the magistrate engaging in attempted corruption to the tune of 100 million FCFA, reveals a source close to the case to 237online.com.
But very quickly, doubt sets in. What if this voice was not that of prosecutor Eboko? In any case, this is what several informed observers contacted by our editorial staff say. Disinformation, manipulation, settling of scores… Hypotheses abound to explain the origin of this soundtrack which is causing trouble for Cameroonian justice.
Eboko replaced: a decision unrelated to the audio scandal
Still, in this atmosphere of generalized suspicion, a decision falls like a chopper: Jean Simplice Eboko is relieved of his duties and replaced by his colleague, magistrate Effoudou, until then attached to the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Court of Appeal of the Coast. What gives credence to the thesis of a sanction linked to the alleged corruption affair?
Nay, corroborating judicial sources hasten to correct them. Contacted by 237online.com, they assure that the replacement of Eboko has “no relation to the audio tape which is circulating”. The reason would be quite different: a few days ago, the now ex-prosecutor had received a request for explanations from his superiors concerning delays in the processing of certain files. A recurring situation which had already been criticized “on several occasions in vain”, it is specified.
Prosecutor Eboko, victim of a cabal?
Faced with this request for explanations, Simplice Eboko’s response clearly did not convince his superiors, who decided to relieve him of his duties. A purely administrative and disciplinary sanction, therefore, unrelated to the audio scandal which is shaking public opinion.
From then on, a question burns on our lips: what if the young magistrate was in reality the victim of a cleverly orchestrated cabal? And if this soundtrack was just a lure intended to harm him, a “set-up” to destabilize him at the very moment when his superiors were calling him to account?
Contacted by 237online.com, the entourage of prosecutor Eboko denounces “gross manipulation” and an “attempt at destabilization”. Some even see the hand of “mafia networks” disturbed by the intransigence of the magistrate in certain sensitive cases. Serious accusations which, if proven, would shed harsh light on the underground maneuvers at work in the Cameroonian legal world.
To be continued. One thing is certain: in this legal drama with multiple twists and turns, we are far from having heard the last word. Prosecutor Eboko, for his part, intends to clear his honor and prove his innocence. Cameroonian justice has not finished shaking on its foundations!