Former CBC Executive President Rev. Dr Nditemeh Charlemagne and others sentenced
CBC: Court Orders Church to Pay Former CBC Christians 5 million CFA
The Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) has been ordered by the Yaounde Court of First Instance to pay 5 million CFA in damages to two of its former Christians. The two were excommunicated under the leadership of Rev. Dr Nditemeh Charlemagne. Nditemeh was the previous Executive President of the CBC and had excommunicated Albert Luma and Emi Emmanuel when the duo took the CBC to court over alleged constitutional irregularities.
According to ‘Cameroon Tribune’, three CBC officials are indicted in the ruling, namely former CBC Executive President, Rev. Dr Nditemeh; former CBC Chairman, Mr Yosimbom John Mkong and Pastor for the Yaounde CBC Council of Churches, Rev. Jumbuin Enoch.
If the CBC fails to pay the said sum, “imprisonment warrants will be issued against the three CBC serving and former officials…and they risk spending nine months each for that eventual offence,” the report from ‘Cameroon Tribune’ reads in part. It also quotes the lawyer for the two former CBC Christians as saying that “the court also ordered the three (CBC officials) to pay just above 200, 000 CFA into the public treasury as trial expenses”.
A key argument of the court is that the CBC violated a court order banning the holding of CBC decentralized General Session elections in Yaounde in December 2024. The lawyer for the CBC argued that the elections held in Obala, in the Lekie Division of the Centre Region, were outside the jurisdiction of the Yaounde Court of First Instance.
One of the plaintiffs, Mr Luma Albert, welcomed the court’s decision, denying that he was seeking any form of what he described as “self-aggrandizement” and calling the ruling “truth” and that the indicted CBC officials had “violated CBC regulations” as well as a “court order”.
