In-depth Report By Azore Opio

On December 5, 2009, Chief Mbella Sonne Dipoko finished a rare breakfast in his modest Tiko residence at about 7.30 am. At 8 am, he hobbled under excruciating abdominal pains into the corridor of Dr. Ebanja's Clinic. Barely ten minutes later, he lay dead in the clinic. Today, as then, the sudden death of a leader, poet and novelist so firmly committed to humbleness and non-violence is so abhorrent, so repulsive and still surrounded by mysteries, complexities and surprising ideas.

Late Sonne Dipoko (L) with father Paul Sonne Dipoko (M) and son Paul Sonne Dipoko (R)

The unexplained mysteries range from no pathology or other evidence of the cause of death; a strange female, visiting Dipoko on or before the day he died; the meals he ate in Douala and Tiko on separate days; land ceded by the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, and land  leased to a foreign company for the cultivation of bananas; a résumé drawn up by the late Chief and deposited with the Tiko Divisional officer, DO, a day before he (Dipoko) died and Dr. Ebanja's sealing of Dipoko's residence immediately after his death... and the sudden appearance of Dipoko's long-lost Lagos-based son. The truth is far more complicated.

First Poison Attempt

The first failed attempt at Dipoko's life might have been made late in 2008, in Douala, at a family meeting, where Dipoko was served a sandwich, because, it would appear, there was little else to offer. "Chief told me a member of the family offered him a bread sandwich and told him; 'sorry, there isn't much entertainment; we have only this'", said Jean Marie Ngoju, Dipoko's bosom friend for over 20 years.

"We then drove to Babenga in Bekoko, Mungo Division, where Dipoko said his grandmother once lived and knew a certain plant whose leaves could treat poisoning. We harvested the leaves and after taking a concoction made from it, Chief recovered." "About four days, later," Jean Marie told The Post, "Dipoko told me that someone came from Douala to Tiko and told him: "You are a strong man after the sandwich."
Second Attempt

Jean Marie recalls that Dipoko always told him that his family didn't love him, despite all he tried to do for them and curry their love. He said on November 10, 2009, Dipoko and his cousin, Adolf Mongo Dipoko, travelled to Douala for another family meeting to discuss projects under Missaka Holdings, Dipoko's development brainchild, and share out some fallouts in the form of money.

 "One and half months before his death, Chief and I travelled to Douala to present a family that has land in Misssaka with FCFA 100,000, a token fallout from the land lease deal under Missaka Holdings," Adolf told The Post in Limbe. "We were invited to a meal of fried fish, fish stew and miondo. I ate a little of the fried fish and a finger of miondo, while Dipoko ate the stew. The next day, Chief called me and asked if I was well. I told him I had nothing wrong with me. Then he told me he had a terrible stomach upset. When I come to think of it, I don't know why he ate in Douala at all. Chief never ate outside his home; never! But that day he ate, perhaps, to please the hosts...

"Sometimes Chief never ate until late in the day when he would go to the market and buy fruits and eat just that. That was Dipoko. I don't even know the woman who accompanied Chief to the clinic on the day of his death, although I saw her again when we were burying my brother; but we don't know her, whether she is a distant relation or not." Jean Marie corroborates this revelation: "On November 11, Chief Dipoko called me at 6 am. He was never in the habit of calling me that early and that morning he spoke faintly. When I arrived at his office, he was lying helplessly on a chair and he told me, 'finally, these people have succeeded in poisoning me. I don't even know what happened until I ate.

Mbella Sonne Dipoko (R) with son Paul Sone Dipoko

After eating the sauce, nobody else ate. After eating, I sensed that I had eaten something bad, but it was too late. " Jean Marie adds... "a fortnight after my friend died, I met Adolf at the DO's office and he confirmed that Chief had eaten the sauce alone." According to Jean Marie, Dipoko asked him to find a native doctor. "I know a Bakossi man who practises traditional medicine; I went to his house but he had already left." Dipoko would call Dr. Gabriel Ebanja of Ebanja's Clinic in Tiko. Dr. Ebanja is known to be probably the only other closest friend to Dipoko, besides Jean Marie.

"He called to tell me his stomach was giving him trouble; so I asked him to come over and I gave him a general antidote," said Dr. Ebanja. "You know, we don't have any pathologist around here." On November 12, recalls Jean Marie, Dipoko once more called him at 6 am to check on the "traditional doctor" who turned up and examined Dipoko and said he would sleep over the problem. The following day, he confirmed poisoning and gave a prescription, which Chief never took, said Jean Marie.

Bad Omen

"Sometime late in November, we were returning from Douala when Dipoko nearly collapsed. Again, we went to Babenga for the leaves, after which Chief felt better. Still, in November, on the 26th day precisely, Chief travelled to Muquo, a village in Missaka, and felt so bad that we had to go for the Babenga leaves. He recovered some," recalled Jean Marie. He further recalls that on November 28, on their way back from Douala, a bird hit the windscreen of their car on Dipoko's side. "I told Chief it was a bad omen, because it had happened to me thrice and people who were very close to me had died. The Chief said: 'it might be me; I'll see a lawyer to write my will,'" said Jean Marie.

From the following day to December, Jean Marie said he kept on reminding his friend about the will. From then on, Dipoko weathered the "poison" and went about his business as usual, travelling to Douala on December 3 to conclude the land deal; drank some wine when he got back to Tiko and told Jean Marie: "we are rich". On December 4, before he went to CDC the headoffice in Limbe, the DO called him and asked him to deposit his résumé with him.
"Chief typed out his résumé on his old typing machine, stamped and signed it and took it to the DO, and then he went to Limbe. He had an appointment on Monday 7, with the CDC, for the ceding of land.  Then the swift hand of death snatched him on December 5. Dr. Ebanja said his friend barely made it to his clinic that morning, escorted by an unknown woman.

"Ten minutes after he tottered into the reception, accompanied by a young woman whom I didn't know, he was dead," said Ebanja, "we just took his corpse to the Limbe Regional Hospital mortuary, awaiting burial that same day. Chief, however, had told me he ate breakfast that morning, probably prepared by the unknown woman; a thing he rarely did while he lived."
Jean Marie said Dipoko called him on Saturday, December 5 at about 7.10 am, "sounding perfectly fine." At 9 am Jean Marie said, he got to Dipoko's office but found it locked. He rang the phone, but it was ringing endlessly.

"For about half an hour, I sat in front of the office," said Jean Marie. "Then Dr. Ebanja called me and asked me: "do you know the woman who is doing business with Chief and was supposed to pay him some money? The question shocked me, because three weeks earlier, one of the things Chief told me was just what Ebanja had asked me. Then Ebanja asked me to go immediately to his clinic where I found my friend lying dead." Jean Marie also recalls that the nurses who attended to Dipoko before his demise, said the strange woman who took him to the clinic used his cell phone to make a call in which she purportedly said in the Mongo language that "he is dead."

"I then remembered Chief once telling me he read a book about poisoning which said, if a man poisoned you and you weren't staying together, he would call to find out, and that is exactly what they did," said Jean Marie. "I also remembered that after the second incident in Douala, Chief had told me that someone had called and asked him; 'How are you? Are you fine?' Chief had called Adolf to tell him that if anyone in Douala called him, he should alert him and Adolf confirmed this."

The days that followed Chief Dipoko's untimely departure are dogged by suspicions. First, Dipoko, according to Ebanja, was to receive between FCFA 40-50 million from the Missaka Holdings land lease deal on December 15. Second, Adolf wonders why Dipoko would deposit his résumé just before his death with the Divisional Officer, rather than at the High Court, where Dipoko's own father's will that has not yet been executed, lies. Then there is Dr. Ebanja whom some quarters rumour might have "killed" Dipoko because of his interest in Missaka land.
Dr. Ebanja dismissed as "baseless and senseless" the idea that he is interested in Missaka land.

"First of all, I am the Chief of Mokonje and we have thousands of hectares of land there; why would I be interested in a land where I am not even a native? Secondly, Chief Dipoko was more useful to me alive than dead," he said to The Post. "I can't be interested in Missaka land," he added. As for sealing Dipoko's residence after his death, Ebanja retorted with a rhetorical question; "what would you do to a dear friend's residence if he died and you were the closest comrade around?"

Line Of Succession

The language in the current Missaka chieftaincy succession seems to define who may become Chief upon the incapacity, death or resignation of a sitting chief. The Missaka Chieftaincy lineage indicates that Chief Jacob Embola Dipoko, the founder of Missaka chiefdom, sired the following children: Chief Paul Sonne Dipoko, Elong Dipoko, Martin Embola Dipoko, Makunde Dipoko, Ngondedi Dipoko and Victoria Kingue Dipoko.  Chief Paul Sonne Dipoko would bring forth late Mbella Sonne Dipoko, who would take over the chieftaincy when his father died in about 1990. Meanwhile, Ebengue Dipoko would father Jacques Ebengue Dipoko, a cousin to Mbella Sonne Dipoko.

Before Jacob Embola Dipoko died, he handed over the Chieftaincy stool to his only brother, Rev. Pastor Oscar Ndongue Embola, who, after reigning for six years, and seeing that his calling as a Pastor was clashing with Chieftaincy obligations and duties, decided to hand over to his nephew, Paul Sonne Dipoko. Again, as was in the case of Jacob, Paul Sonne, on his sickbed, summoned his close relations and presented two names as possible heirs - Jacques Ebengue Dipoko; his nephew and Mbella Sonne, his own son. The family members, according to Adolf Mongo Dipoko, chose Mbella.

Adolf says now that Mbella is dead, the family has resorted to the second choice; Jacques Ebengue Dipoko. But this doesn't seem to auger well with Paul Sonne Dipoko, Chief Mbella's son, who thinks he should be the rightful heir to his father's stool. After a rather abrasive interaction with Adolf, he simply said: "if the family insists that I can't inherit my father's stool, then they can only do what tradition demands."

On his part, Adolf, (family secretary) who acknowledges that late Chief Mbella had a son, however, argues that the late Chief once told a few people that he wanted to keep his son (Paul) out of the family circle, so that he (Paul) doesn't stain the royal blood, since he was begotten of "an outsider".

Controversial Succession?

In the case of abandoning patrilineal succession and bringing in a nephew or any other relation into the Missaka succession line, the Divisional Officer, DO, for Tiko Subdivision, Augustine Awa Fonka, said "a few days after Chief Dipoko died, some members of the royal famil, led by Adolf, came and told me that Dipoko hadn't any children, let alone a male child and they presented Jacques Ebengue Dipoko. But I have with me here, a document signed by Dipoko to the effect that he had three children, one of them male. And Jacques himself told me that he actually travelled to France to bring back Dipoko to fill the throne.

They want the administration to back them, so that they have leeway and an opening to shift succession from one lineage to another. If they want to take the stool, let them take it; I have my conscience and the law to fall back to." Article 10, of Chapter II of Decree No. 77/245 of 15 July, 1977 to organise chiefdoms states that "in case of vacancy of a throne, the administrative authority shall, without delay, proceed to make the necessary consultations with a view to appointing a new Chief.

Article 11 continues: "the competent elders shall obligatorily be consulted before a Chief is appointed. Article 12 (1) says, "the consultations referred to in the aforementioned articles 10 and 11 shall be made during a public meeting presided over by the Prefect in the case of First and Second Class Chiefdoms, and by the Sub-Prefect in the case of Third Class Chiefdoms; (2) the conduct of the consultations shall be entered in a report signed by the Chairman of the meeting.

Meanwhile, article 15 of the same decree states that First Class Chiefs shall be appointed by the Prime Minister, Second Class Chiefs by the Minister of Territorial Administration and Third Class Chiefs by the Prefect, and article 16 (1) states that "the objections raised on the occasion of the appointment of a Chief shall be brought before the competent authority vested with the power of appointment who shall have the last say on the matter; (2) provided that the decision taken, may be reversed if it is proved that the competent authority was misled and article 17 (1) states that "the Chief shall necessarily reside in the area under his rule...."

The then Fako Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, Jules Marcelin Ndjaga said: "it's too early to talk about succession now. The administration can only act according to the tradition in force in a particular area. In the case where kingmakers are absent or fail to choose a successor, the administration would step in and facilitate an election of a new Chief with the participation of all the villagers concerned. In the Missaka case, we'll wait for the kingmakers, if there are any, or the family, to make their choice of an heir."

Thinking now more about all those eerie coincidences, mysteries, complexities and surprising ideas surrounding Chief Mbella Sonne Dipoko's death, one is left with a lot more questions than answers. Then, again, may be the coincidences don't add up. Was it coincidence, murder or just plain bad luck?