Major Informant Accused Of Being Fourth Columnist

Eli Ahmadou, who helped in foiling several deadly suicide bomb attacks in Kousseri in northern Cameroon and Ndjamena in Chad, now stands accused of non-denunciation of Boko Haram terrorist acts and conniving with terrorists.

In what is perhaps a major embarrassment to Cameroon’s security and intelligence services, a major Boko Haram informant, Eli Ahmadou, a Cameroonian national, is on trial at the Yaounde Military Tribunal. He is accused of “non-denunciation of terrorist acts and connivance in terrorist acts, all punishable under Articles 74, 97, 1 of the Penal Code and Article 2 of Law 2014/028 of December 23, 2014.”

The matter came up for hearing yesterday, October 17, 2016. The trial team was led by Col. Abega, assisted by Col. Piam Wafo Jean D. and Lt. Col. Ayang Clement. Counsel for the State was Major Nzie Pierrot Narcisse, while Eli Ahmadou was defended by Barrister Nlocka Paul Bernard. The suspect was arrested and detained on August 25, 2015, by the General Delegation for External Research, DGRE. He is presently in prison custody in the Yaounde Main Prison at Kondengui.

Eli Ahmadou was picked up in Kousseri in Logone and Chari Division of the Far North Region soon after returning from a mission to the nearby Chadian capital, Ndjamena, where he provided useful intelligence to the authorities on Boko Haram suicide bomb cells. At yesterday’s hearing, Eli recalled how he was a motorbike trader for his boss in Gamboru Ngalla, in Nigeria’s Borno State, before the town was ransacked by Boko Haram militants. In Gamboru Ngalla, he knew a certain Barna Fanai, who also dealt in motorbikes.

Eli said when he later discovered that Fanai was a Boko Haram member, he distanced himself from him. After losing 147 bikes in the militant onslaught on Gamboru Ngalla, Eli fled to Kousseri where he began supplying information on Boko Haram suicide bomb cells in the town to the local vigilante group and police intelligence service.  

Testifying for the accused at Monday’s hearing, a police intelligence official from Kousseri in Logone and Chari Division (who, for security reasons, would not want his name mentioned); said Eli was recommended to him as a good Boko Haram informant by operatives of the Nigeria Police Force. They said his years of serving as a police informant in Gamboru Ngalla on Boko Haram activities showed that he was dependable.

The officer said it was upon this recommendation that he searched for Eli Ahmadou and finally found him. He said the informant was so useful to his service and the local vigilantes as he provided vital information that helped in foiling several Boko Haram suicide attacks and the arrest, trial and sentencing of suspects.

It was because of such collaboration...