Wasum Augustine, former mayor of the Balikumbat council in the Ngoketunjia department in the Northwest region, is relieved after a girl he was accused of killing was found alive in Douala.
Iyeh Precious, daughter of Nwanyek Philip was recently found in the economic capital, Douala colportage, we learned. This comes years after the former mayor was imprisoned by the father of the missing daughter for allegedly kidnapping and killing her daughter.
The AIIC learned from sources close to the family that this was a ploy to get Mayor Wasum Augustine out of his seat.
This girl disappeared in June 2015 and has not been seen for several years. His father was a councillor in the council of Balikumbat and also a friend of the mayor, we learned. The case was brought before the Ndop High Court in 2016 and Wasum Augustine spent more than two years in pre-trial detention in Ndop prison. In December 2018, the accused was released on the grounds that there was no evidence that he had committed the act. The girl’s father subsequently appealed the court’s decision, which was overturned by the Northwest Court of Appeal, and the accused was arrested again in 2022 and detained in Bamenda Central Prison.
We concluded that the case could see another twist that the girl was identified and detained by the security forces in Douala. Another source revealed that in recent years, the girl’s name has been changed just for her father to win the deal against the former mayor.
