Colonel Jean-Pierre Otoulou stepped up to the stand and defended the way he conducted the investigation into the death of Cameroonian journalist Martinez Zogo. He maintained that his file rests on solid evidence, including material showing that Bruno Bidjang — at the time a collaborator of businessman Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, one of the central defendants — went digging for details about enquiries that touched him personally.
Bidjang may have tried to paint himself as an innocent man, but the lawyer representing Martinez Zogo’s heirs reads his conduct very differently, describing it as meddling in the case. “It simply confirms what we suspected from the very start. He did try to infiltrate this joint commission, inside an investigation that was supposed to be about him,” said Maître Calvin Job.
A senior officer insists he was only obeying orders
In the course of his exchanges with Colonel Otoulou, Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Danwe of the DGRE admitted planning the surveillance, the abduction and the torture of the Cameroonian presenter. He also acknowledged assembling the operational squads from DGRE personnel. Yet he hinted that his superiors had told him to act.
Counsel for Eko Eko rejects that account
For the lawyers defending Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, who headed the general intelligence service when the events unfolded, nothing in the file backs up such a version. “He left on a mission without a mission order and without funding. When he returned, he filed no report to his superiors. The conclusion is simple: this was Colonel Danwe’s personal initiative,” said Maître Ndjana Ndjana.
The contested site of the torture
Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Danwe repeated once more that Martinez Zogo was not tortured inside the Ekang building, which belongs to Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga.
