First of its kind in Francophone Africa, trade union files a law suit against a GM, an expatriate for that matter, and gets him condemn to life imprisonment.
The Yaoundé Special Criminal Tribunal has slammed a lifetime imprisonment jail term to former Camair-co General Manager Alexander Van Elk. The sentence for the more than one decade long law suit against the 60 year old Dutch national finally fell on January 21st 2025. Director General for the Cameroon Airline Corporation between 2010 and 2012, Van Elk’s management pattern was so blatantly appalling that it attracted the attention of Air Transport Worker’s trade union president Daniel Eyango Njong.
Finding it abnormal to let such gross mismanagement on a national heritage go unpunished, trade unionist Daniel Eyango courageously filed a law suit against the Dutch in November 2012. It took the experience and expertise of an accounting firm in the like of the Okalla Ahanda and Associate accounting firm to ascertain that within the period of two years, Alex Van Elk’s management was simply catastrophic. With an exorbitant monthly remuneration package of 18.33 million frs CFA instead of the authorized 11.39 million, not forgetting some undue advantages in kind, public contracts awarded through the back door, 5 billion of illegal personal bonuses without the approval of the board of directors, just to name a few.
It took temerity and financial stress for a brave mind like Daniel Eyango Njong to engage in such a fierce fight against his then General Manager, even though he was president of the syndicate. For 13 years running, like a one-man-riot, he stood his grounds to see justice prevail. “I was not accompanied by anybody. I had preferred to go through this fight alone. I did not want anyone to be fired or threaten because of my method of syndicating” he said.
For a law suit which lingered that long, God alone knows how much financial load it had. But Mr Daniel Eyang confirmed to the press that he was all alone to stand the burden. Very rare is it to find a Cameroonian that will undertake such a selfless endeavor for the sake of justice. “My reward is moral, my only satisfaction is to have served justice. This is not the first time that I have taken on this type of denunciation” he pursued. “The criticism of my syndicate was very instrumental in the Fotso and Ngamo Amani case in their era.” he recalled. This time around, he went a little further creating a national precedent.
During the hearings, Judge Zakiyatou Alioum of the Special Criminal Tribunal had summoned the Netherlands born former Cameri-co General Manager, but he failed to show up, so the proceedings went on in absentia. After investigations and counter investigations by professionals and experts in the domain for more than a decade, the sentence rumbled like thunder in the sky. A life imprisonment jail term to Alexander Van Elk for aggravated misappropriation of public funds and a 484.96 million frs CFA fine to be paid to Camair-co as damage, accompanied by an international arrest warrant. Talking to the press after the verdict, the former Air Transport Worker’s trade union president, Daniel Eyango Njong expressed satisfaction. “I had to do it and I don’t regret it”. He concluded.
The van Elk affair that will henceforth have a national and international echo has come to spotlight the power of the trade union, especially that it has always been neglected in our county. Not only will it unveil the mismanagement that has long been enshrined in most public companies at the detriment of the common tax payer, but it also shows that the Cameroon justice system could naked any corrupt and incompetent management in the country if it is willing to do so.