Martinez Zogo's murder: Why Biya should name suspects.

The gruesome murder of Yaounde-based radio journalist, Arsène Salomon Mbami Zogo, fondly known as Martinez Zogo, is attracting worldwide condemnation.

On Friday, some Cameroonians in Washington demonstrated with his effigy, demanding for justice. Martinez Zogo's horribly mutilated and decomposing body was found in the outskirts of Yaounde on January 22, after he went missing on January 17.

Media reports quoted his neighbours as saying they saw unidentified men outside his home several nights before his abduction and murder.

He had, through his critical programme on the radio, exposed some high-profile individuals of the regime for embezzlement of state funds using questionable contracts.

When his corpse was found, accusation fingers were pointed at some of the regime's moguls whom he had named in his report,

In a TV 5 Monde interview, Arnaud Froger, head of the Africa office of Reporters Without Borders, was unequivocal in implicating the government.

“When we talk about a state crime, it is because this crime was not committed by ordinary people, criminals who would have been hired in the street. It was committed by the intelligence services of Cameroon. That is a fact which has been confirmed by the investigators and which is confirmed by one of the witnesses and which belongs to this intelligence service which recognises its involvement...," Froger said.

Following pressure mounted by civil society actors, rights defenders, media associations, politicians, and the international community, President Biya, through the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, and not even by way of the government spokesman, to illustrate the gravity of the crime, announced three key elements.

In the January 27 statement, he instructed the National Gendarmerie to, in collaboration with the General Delegation for National Security, open a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Zogo.

The second element, as divulged by Ngoh Ngoh, was the arrest of “several individuals highly suspected of being involved” in the kidnap, torture and assassination of the victim.

The third major point was that other suspects are on the run.

“The Minister of State, Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic hereby informs the public that in pursuance of the instructions from the President of the Republic, His Excellency Paul Biya, a mixed Gendarmerie-Police commission of inquiry has been set up to shed light on the assassination of the journalist, Arsène Salomon Mbami Zogo, also known as Martinez Zogo,” the statement from the presidency disclosed.

It added that: “Investigations carried out so far have led to the arrest of several individuals highly suspected of being involved in this heinous crime. Others remain wanted”.

The statement furthered explained that “ongoing interrogations and the ensuing judicial proceedings will help to determine the level of involvement of each suspect and establish the identities of all those connected in one way or the other with the assassination of Martinez Zogo”.

From the briefings, the names of the arrested suspects were not disclosed by the Head of State, the number of those arrested is not known, leaving the public to bank on speculation that there are about 20. Secondly, those on the run have not also been made public. 

It raises the fundamental issue journalists around the world have argued against: Hiding identities of criminal suspects as being against public interest.

Do suspects deserve anonymity until the point that the investigators charge them with an offence - or in the case of some crimes - anonymity until convicted?

In places like the United Kingdom, for instance, where suspects have the privilege of the presumption of innocence, reputational damage, and the right to a fair trial, anonymity could be logical in some minor crimes. But not in a case of murder. Even if by whatever explanation the government wants to hide the identity of those in the police dragnet, why not name those on the run so as to make members of the public assist in hunting them?

Hiding the identities of the suspects in the Zogo murder could instead tarnish the reputation of some people he might have been critical of in his reporting, but who may in fact be innocent in his macabre killing.

One of such victims who has been accused in the social media, and later arrested yesterday, is a businessman and media mogul. The man who has been claiming his innocence, is even known to have offered a mass at a Catholic church in Yaounde over the weekend to pray, in subjugation to God, that his detractors' dream do not come to pass.

In Cameroon, people are known to have been detained and named as being suspects in relation to crimes less heinous than the ghoulish murder of Zogo. So, why protect the identities of those arrested at the risk of suspecting innocent people?

Reporters Without Borders has come out in an international media organ to declare that it is a "state" crime just because of claims that the suspects in detention are top security officials. Even if it is true that they are government top security officials and some ministers implicated as the speculations are rife, we at this daily newspaper hold that it wasn't at the behest of the government but might have been the handiwork of some individuals abusing their office.

That is the more reason the government should cleanse its image by naming those who have been arrested, interrogated and detained or released. It will not only cleanse its dented image, but protect the reputation of innocent compatriots who are being "detained" and "tried" by the social media.

The Guardian Post appreciates President Biya's resolve “to keep up his struggle for democracy, human rights, good governance and progress, together with the government and all Cameroonians of good-will”, like journalists who have been doing a thankless job.

But he should order the exposure of all those being implicated and on the run. This will be as a demonstration of his commitment to the rule of law and press freedom so as not to give any iota of doubt that it is a crime engineered by his regime.