A powerful Cameroonian businessman who is allegedly connected to the horrible murder of journalist Mbani Zogo Arsène Salomon, also known as Martinez Zogo, has been detained, according to his firm and attorney.
According to a statement from the organization, Anecdote Group founder and CEO Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga was detained at his home in Yaounde at the crack of dawn on Monday.
In a statement that did not mention the journalist's death, the organization claimed that "he is at the State Defence Secretariat as part of an inquiry."
Barrister Charles Tchoungang, Belinga's attorney, acknowledged the 57-year-old business tycoon's arrest but declined to immediately comment on whether the detention is connected to the continuing inquiry into the savage murder of the journalist.
Yes, he has been arrested, but I haven't read the file yet. So therefore, I am unable to provide the basis for his arrest at this time," Tchoungang said over the phone to The East African.
On January 22, 2023, five days after being taken by unknown invaders, the dead body of 51-year-old Zogo in an advanced condition of decomposition was discovered. When he passed away, the well-known radio personality was running Amplitude FM, a station with a sizable audience in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon.
The murdered broadcaster was well-known for his midday French chat show "Embouteillage" (traffic jam). He frequently highlighted alleged corruption and misappropriation of public monies. Before Belinga's kidnapping and eventual murder, he had targeted him on the program.
Reporters Without Borders claimed Friday that the journalist had been escorted to the business tycoon's building before being brutally murdered.
Media reports state that one of Belinga's closest associates, journalist, and director-general of Anecdote Group conglomerate's media unit Bruno Bidjang, was also arrested.
A pro-regime television channel called Vision 4 TV and a pan-African Télésud TV channel with its headquarters in Paris is part of the Group's media business.
The business tycoon's detention follows that of "many others" who, according to the government, was taken into custody last week in connection with the journalist's slaying after an investigation that President Paul Biya ordered.
