The judiciary has opened investigations into allegations that current Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Lazare Essimi Menye was involved in the embezzlement of over 9BFCFA while he served as Minister of Finance.

According to a report carried by French language daily Mutations, in its Thursday edition, the minister was invited to appear before the Special Criminal Court on Tuesday January 13, alongside others under same investigation.

The report states that while others like Abah Abah Polycarpe and his co accused appeared and got their verdict, Essimi did not respect the call. Abah Abah, who was already serving a jail term for embezzling state funds, was handed a twenty-five year jail term for embezzling some 6billion FCFA while he served as director of taxation.

30 of his landed property and 25 million FCFA in local bank accounts was also to be seized by order of the Special Criminal Court.

Rather, Menye went to the ministry of justice where he is said to have had an interrogation with a judge. Questioned to answer why he did not appear before the court, the minister said he never received any invitation to appear before the court on the said date.

Our efforts to get an interview with the minister were thwarted at the minister’s cabinet by his collaborators. Even one of his collaborators who accepted to talk to us on basis of anonymity would not admit nor refute that the minister has been grilled.

But we had it on good authority that the minister appeared before a judge at the justice ministry, but pleaded that a questionnaire should be provided to enable him answer the judge’s questions with a cool head.

The judiciary is requesting Menye to answer questions relating to his reported ordering of a transfer of 9.025.000.000 FCFA from Amity Bank Cameroon to Atlantic bank when he was finance minister. A second embezzlement case is that of the minister’s alleged involvement in a 50 million FCFA scam in the defunct Cameroon Tobacco Corporation.