Felix Mbayu, Secretary General in the Ministry of External Relations, MINREX, has refuted media reports that fraudulently obtained diplomatic passports are in circulation in the country.

He made the statement to state media, on CRTV, February 21, following several reports in the media that a young diplomat, one Maxwell Achu, working in the Ministry of External Relations and who has been in pre-trial detention at the Kondengui prison since February 3, had forged the Secretary General’s signature and was using it to produce fake diplomatic passports for civil servants to travel abroad.

“As you can imagine, crooks are capable of doing anything and they can falsify any document. But what I can say as of now, that the facts at our disposal show that there is none because at the level of our Ministry where the diplomatic passports are issued, the procedure put in place by hierarchy is so water tight that it’s difficult for such a document which leaves this Ministry either to be falsified or issued to anyone who doesn’t have the right to it. If anyone has proofs, let them bring it” said Mbayu.

Issues came to head when the US information service unit at MINREX noticed an increase in the number of diplomatic passports held by Cameroonians. An investigation launched, came out with the results that there was a vast network issuing the passports.

The Secretary General at MINREX, who was notified, ordered an investigation.

It is then that the Eligsono Judicial Police found Maxwell Achu guilty of forgery and got him arrested. Further investigations to fish out all those involved in the network are still ongoing.