II.
SUMMARY OF ALLEGED FACTS
6. The Complainants, in their submission to the Committee, allege that TFA, aged 10, was
raped on 9, 12, 15 and 16 of April, 2012, in Amanda - North-West region of Cameroon. The
violation was then reported by Ms. Tebid Ruthda, the aunt of the victim, who officially filed the
case before the local police.
7. The Complainants allege that the police requested a medical examination of the victim which
included an HIV test. The medical examination confirmed that she had been raped and a
medical certificate to that effect was obtained from the hospital by victim‟s aunt.
8. The Complainants further allege that the victim child was requested to lead the police to the
suspect‟s house, where she was raped. Upon reaching to the house of the suspect, Mr
Angwah Jephter Mbah, a prominent and influential figure in the area, the Complainants
submitted that, the police did not enter his house with the victim. It was later reported by his
office personnel that the suspected has travelled to another area.
9. It is the Complainants‟ submission that the Judicial Police Commissioner summoned the
suspect for an identification parade where the suspect disguised himself in his lawyer‟s suit
and tilted his head down. Moreover, the Complainants state that when the victim was called
to identify the suspect, the lawyers of the suspect yelled at her saying “this is the little girl
that said she was raped”. The girl was scared and coupled with the disguise and tilting of the
head by the real suspect the girl was unable to identify him.
10. The Complainants further allege that though Cameroon‟s Criminal Procedure Code requires,
upon a complaint of a felony having been lodged with the police, the suspect was supposed
to be remanded in custody while investigations were under way, this did not happen in the
matter at hand as the suspect was not remanded in custody.
11. Moreover, the investigating judicial police took three months before submitting a report of
the investigation to the Legal Department. The Complainants allege that the State Counsel
eventually filed the findings with the Examining Magistrate, who eventually dismissed the
evidence for disclosing no case.
12. Following the decision of the Examining Magistrate, on 9 November, 2012, Lawyer, Mr.
Egute Kelvin Awanaya wrote to the Examining Magistrate on the Finders Group Initiative
headed paper countersigned by Mr. Ambo Gaby, requesting for a copy of the ruling for
purposes of an appeal in accordance with the applicable law. The Complainants further
allege that the Examining Magistrate refused to hand over copy of the decision on the
ground that it is only the State which could appeal against the ruling. The Complainants,
disagreeing with the Examining Magistrate‟s position, submit that the Examining Magistrate
failed to comply with Cameroonian law which provides that Complainants in any proceeding
may, upon request, be provided with a copy of the record of proceedings for their case. The
Complainants indicated that by December, 2013 over a year since a copy of the ruling was
requested for, it had not been provided.
13. The Complainants allege that Tebid Ruthda, the victim‟s aunt, was requested to sign an
already drafted statement which she declined and in return wrote her own statement when
she visited the Station that summoned her to report at the Bamenda Judicial Police Station
on a charge of criminal defamation on December 2012.
14. The Complainants allege that Tebid Ruthda received, in July, 2013, a summons from the
State Counsel to appear before the Court to answer for a charge of defamation, a charge that
was premised on the allegation that a text message Ms. Ruthda sent to a radio call-in
program called „The Other Side of Midnight‟ expressing her frustration about the manner the
complaint of rape of her niece had been thrown away, which read „My child was raped, the
matter was thrown out of court, I have no money for appeal and with the child‟s excruciating
pain I am asking for advice on what to do‟, which was considered to mean that the Magistrate
is corrupt.
15. The Complainants allege that, though Tebid Ruthda denied the request, the Magistrate had,
at one occasion, asked Ms. Ruthda to send another text message to the same radio station
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