After expulsion from party: SDF bigwigs head to court, demand reinstatement.

Members of the group, operating under the aegis of the G27+ platform, were in February slammed the contentious Article 8.2 of the party’s constitution; which expels members found guilty of engaging in ‘anti-party’ activities.

The decision to expunge members of the group was arrived at at the National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting held in Yaounde.

The gathering came days after the group had organised a press conference in Douala to publicly present their grievances.

The group, which has since decried injustice, has described their expulsion from the party as a miscarriage of justice.

They have in a fresh legal suit engaged the Mfoundi Magistrate Court to seek justice.

The group is amongst other things praying the tribunal to reinstate the membership of members of the platform as well suspend the forthcoming elective convention of the SDF. 

The party is due to elect a new national executive bureau members at a convention billed for July this year.

In a complaint tabled before judges at the Mfoundi Magistrate Court, the counsel for the G27+ members informed the court that “…on 10 December 2022, the Regional Executive Committees were dissolved with the complicity of the National Legal Advisers who had refused to pronounce on the grievances raised by the petitioners, without valid reasons, which was likely to seriously damage the image of the party, its democratic reputation and to disrupt its functioning...”.

They argued that “…the denunciations of violation of the statutes by the applicants, far from harming the party, allowed it to get back on the right track of the conquest of power which is its very essence…the applicants only brought the case to the Republic's justice system in desperation, as internal debates had become impossible...”.

“…the applicants have not committed any activity against the party. That, on the other hand, their exclusion constitutes the worst possible negative campaign against the party,” the lawyers argued before requesting that “…the resolutions of the party to exclude the applicants from the SDF party should be suspended”.

On the forthcoming elective convention, the counsel for the plaintiffs stated that “…in a supposedly democratic political party, it is not possible to exclude prominent members and surreptitiously organise a convention to renew its organs, especially when the latter were holding various positions and were eligible for re-election at the said convention”.

They then insisted that “…no party congress can legitimately be held before the legal proceedings between the parties have been exhausted. It is not superfluous to recall the judicially contested co-option of several militants to the national executive committee is an obstacle to the holding of the congress, since the latter without quality are automatically delegates to the said congress”.

They said: “...the decisions of exclusion taken against the applicants have never been notified to them and therefore incur the sanction of nullity, in application of Article 6 of the Regulation on party discipline”.

“…the right to take legal action is a fundamental right of the citizen and is recalled by the constitution of the Republic of Cameroon as well as ratified by international conventions, namely: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights,” the complaint added. They stated that “the referral of a case to a court in order to remedy an injustice suffered cannot be considered a fault”.

“The purpose of these proceedings is to nullify various illegal decisions taken by the National Chairman and the National Executive Committee of the SDF, and could alter the configuration of the National Executive Committee and hence the delegates to the congress,” the complaint then mentioned.

Who are G27+ members?

The G27+ platform of the SDF is made up of a group of over 32 dissident members who have been clamouring for reforms within the opposition political outfit.

They include the Littoral SDF chairman, Hon Nitcheu Jean Michel; the National Communication Secretary, Nkemlemo Denis; former party scribe, Honorable Tsomelou Jean; ex-National Legal Adviser, Ndiva Kofele Kale; former National Assembly questor, Honorable Awudu Mbaya Cyprian and ex-Senate Vice President, Nkeze Emilia.

Others include: Hon Chief Tchatchouang Paul, Mahop Scholastique, Kumase John,  Hon Yoyo Emmanuel, Hon Sonkin Etienne, Kambiwa Chantale, Waffo Jean Robert,  Ntonga, Tchangop Florent,  Aboubakar Siroma, Toko Raphaël, Ngnang Cyrille,  Mouafo, Hon Chief Nji Tumassang,  Hon Fopoussi Fotso Evariste, Wanko Jean Robert, Sukam Tchandjui Pierre, Ngoualem Rodrigue Carlos, Kouasseu Charles, Mbvoum Parfait, Ouanji Luc, Tatsinkem Augustin, Mfam Arouna, Sadefo Edmond, El Hadj Mohnkong Sidiki and Ngapna Abdoulai.

Members of the group have been a thorn in the flesh of the leadership of the SDF. At the start of the year, the group had dragged the National Chairman of the party, Ni John Fru Ndi, to court.

The party heavyweights have since been challenging several decisions taken by the leadership of the party in recent times. They are accusing the SDF National Chairman and the party’s scribe of repeated violation of the text of the political outfit.

They are also accusing Fru Ndi of grossly violating certain provisions of the text of the party and of “highhandedness”. 

The disgruntled members have repeatedly accused Fru Ndi of scheming to hand over the baton of command on a platter of gold to his Vice President, Hon Joshua Osih.