Days after the abduction and murder of Yaounde-based journalist, Martinez Zogo, another reporter in the same town is said to have missed having the same fate.
Le Messager reports that Joseph Olinga, a journalist practicing with the newspaper was almost abducted in the Essos neighbourhood in the capital city, late last week.
“According to eye witnesses, it was about 3 p.m. when one of the people in a black Prado car at the station tried to abduct a man,” the media outfit reported in its Friday, January 27, 2023 edition (No. 7077).
It revealed that the population of the neighbourhood approached the men in the said Prado seeking to know why they were trying to force the man into their car. “The kidnappers,” the report ensued, “let them know that they are police officers who work at the judicial police”.
Faced with mounting pressure from the crowd, they are said to have fled the scene, leaving one of their behind. Gendarmes were invited to the scene, le Messager noted, adding that they soon realised the man left behind was in possession of a fake police identity card.
“The gendarmes also found out that he had a receipt which bore the name, Enyegue Bienvenue. He was transferred to the gendarmerie region…”
𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐎𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐙𝐨𝐠𝐨?
The Olinga situation bears great similarity to that of radio host, Martinez Zogo who was abducted on January 17, and found dead later.
Coincidentally, he was said to have links with the journalist who missed getting abducted.
“It is said that he was a neighbor of Martinez Zogo who moved to settle in the Fougerolles district located in Ngousso,” reported Le Messager.
Both pressmen, it added, are believed to have worked together on a number of aspects including lines 94, 64 and 57 of the state budget.
However, no formal declaration has been made to confirm the supposed abduction attempt by the journalist, his employer or the forces of law and order.
The attempted abduction of another journalist has again raised eyebrows over the safety of pressmen in Cameroon. The country continues to hold one of the worst records of jailing and intimidating reporters, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The institution in 2022, ranked Cameroon the third worst jailer of journalists in Africa.
Poise News Desk
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