Danpullo-MTN affair: GICAM boss sides with MTN, rubbishes Cameroon’s justice system.

This time around, the president of Cameroon Employers’ Organisation, known by its French acronym, GICAM, Celestin Tawamba, has been faulted for questioning a decision by a Cameroonian court to freeze the account of MTN Cameroon.
Tawamba, in a communique dated December 1, 2023, had questioned the Cameroonian justice system, which he accuses of issuing decisions taken in violation of the law.
“For more than a year, the Cameroon Employer's Organisation has been following with keen interest developments in a sui generis dispute between a consortium of Cameroonian companies, the majority of whose shares are held by South African Companies, namely MTN Cameroun, CHOCOCAM and Broadband Telecom, and Cameroonian companies,” the communique stated.
“…attention was particularly drawn to a decision handed over on November 16, 2023, by the Enforcement Judge of the Douala-Bonanjo Court of First Instance, which ordered AFRILAND FIRST BANK to confine in its books the amount of money held in the account entitled Mobile Money Pool Account,” it continued.
“GICAM express its deep concern at such decision, taken in disregard of rules laid down by the banking regulator in the CEMAC region, while at the same time causing major risks to social cohesion and peace,” the GICAM communique stated.
“It is well known that the funds that pass through the digital platforms of the operators of electronic communications networks belong to the holders of electronic money accounts in the books of these operators, and are not their property. Moreover, the bank accounts housing these funds are exempted from seizure, under the terms of Article 24 of instruction No. 002/GR/2021, of the Governor of the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) of 12 May 2021, on the standardisation and operation of payment accounts and the hive-off account, issued in application of Regulation No. 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC of 21 December 2018, on payment services in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community,” it noted.
“In addition to the risks of discontent that could degenerate into unrest on the part of citizens who would be unjustly deprived of their hard-earned resources in their mobile accounts, GICAM can't keep quiet about this issue regarding the harmful consequences that such a decision would have on the attractiveness of investments in Cameroon,” the communique added.
“For this reason, GICAM exhorts the judicial authorities to stick to the strict application of the law, so that such risks can be avoided, considering the tumultuous time in the international order,” Tawamba urged.

Danpullo’s camp strikes back at Tawamba 
However, the GICAM communique has not gone down well with Danpullo’s camp. A source close to Danpullo, in unequivocal terms questioned: “Has GICAM, under Tawamba, become a pressure group, serving a circle of friends?”  
The source noted that Tawamba’s outing “ignores the 100% Cameroonian-owned BESRTINVER company, and violently attacks the Cameroonian justice system”.
“It's certainly a pot calling a kettle black. It is easy to understand the heated battles raging over the GICAM-ECAM merger, which is less about defending the interests of Cameroon's employers than about pandering to a group of friends,” our source said.
He added that: This unfortunate outburst by the President of GICAM, in which he committed the imprudence of making tendentious comments about a legal case that is still pending, is perplexing and shows that he has not exercised the necessary caution that is required in such a delicate matter”.
“In order to take sides with MTN and others, he used the pretext that these are companies incorporated under Cameroonian law with South African capital and simply stated that MTN was opposing a consortium of companies incorporated under South African law,” he said.
Another source told The Guardian Post that: “The companies in the BESTINVER consortium are 100% Cameroonian-owned companies, which parent company is none other than BESTINVER CAMEROUN SA, whose head office is in Yaounde, and which promoter is Cameroonian-born Baba Danpullo, who needs no introduction”.

Influence-peddling that puts judiciary in disrepute 
Chiding Tawamba’s questioning of the court decision, the source said: “The attack on the Cameroonian justice system, and in particular on the decision handed down by the enforcement judge while proceedings are still pending, is sufficient proof that we are in the midst of an influence-peddling operation and brings Cameroonian justice into disrepute”, adding that “if it were serious, GICAM should have consultation frameworks with the Cameroonian justice system and present its recommendations within this framework and not in a press release, which purpose is nothing other than influence-peddling”.
“Does the President of GICAM, who claims to be concerned about the business environment and the reception of investors in our country, appreciate the negative impact of such a statement on doing business in our country?” he queried 
The source continued that: “The plundering of the investments of Baba Danpullo, valued at more than 300 billion FCFA, by a South African bank, which made the headlines in both the print and broadcast media, left GICAM unmoved. GICAM did not see the need to come out in support of its member. In other words, all these promises of a stronger employers' association are just a way for a group of friends to position themselves and protect their own selfish interests, not those of employers”.
“The entire national and even international community has shown its solidarity with Baba Dapullo following this spoliation, but the GICAM, of which he is a member and which should have been at the forefront of this protection of Cameroon's foremost businessman, has remained suspiciously silent,” he said.
“What grounds does the President of GICAM have for making a value judgement on a case in which he has no knowledge of the facts and even less of the legal issues involved?”, he questioned.
“If, under President Tawamba, GICAM has become a pressure group serving a few friends for selfish interests, then campaign promises are only binding on those who believe them”, our source regretted.

Crux of the matter
It should be recalled that a South African bank, First National Bank, FNB, in an action which observers say smacked of xenophobia, had seized and liquidated all of Baba Danpullo’s properties in South Africa, valued at more than 250 billion FCFA.
In recourse, Danpullo seized a Cameroonian court, which went ahead to freeze the accounts of MTN Cameroon SA and CHOCOCAM SA. 
Justifying the freezing of the MTN Cameroon and CHOCOCAM SA accounts, a source close to Baba Danpullo had months back said, “considering the organised dispossession by First National Bank, the only recourse available to the requesting parties for the recovery of their claims is to pursue a conservatory seizure of debts on the accounts of the companies, Mobile Telephone Networks Cameroon Limited (MTN CAMEROON SA) and CHOCOCAM SA, to obtain what is rightfully theirs”. 
The source had noted that the freezing of the accounts of MTN Cameroon, according to Baba Danpullo, is “because these two companies have connections with FNB Bank”.
According to the source, South Africa-based, First National Bank, a subsidiary of First Rand Bank Ltd, in which Public Investment Corporation Ltd is a shareholder, “is also the majority shareholder of Mobile Telephone Networks Cameroon Limited (MTN Cameroon SA).
The freezing of MTN accounts was to play even with FNB in order to recover either Danpullo’s assets that have been liquidated in South Africa, or recuperate the monetary worth of the properties that amounts to 250 billion FCFA. 
Nonetheless, MTN Cameroon had fired back, saying the freezing of its accounts is a travesty of justice. 
At a press conference on June 14, in Douala, top management of MTN Cameroon had denounced what they termed "fraudulent" in rulings handed down by the Douala Court of First instance in Bonanjo, in the case pitting the South African Group and lawyers representing four companies of the BESTINVER Group.
In their outing, the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of MTN Cameroon, Mitwa Ng'ambi, had said the orders signed by the Douala court’s president in September last year had let to the freezing of the company's bank accounts worth 14 billion FCFA. 
MTN Cameroon maintained that is has no relation with BESTINVER, the South African bank or the Public Investment Corporation. MTN said it considers the affair between BESTINVER and the South African bank a private matter, and as such, MTN Cameroon or any South African company in Cameroon cannot be dragged into it.
The legal Commercial General Manager of MTN Cameroon, Felix Fon-Ndikum, said the court’s decision was “fraudulent and unacceptable”.