The trial over the assassination of Cameroonian journalist Martinez Zogo resumes on August 3 and 4 before the Yaoundé military tribunal, with the focus once again on the testimony of Colonel Jean-Pierre Otoulou, the prosecution’s 34th witness, whose statement had already upended the balance of the trial three weeks earlier.
Now commander of the Littoral gendarmerie legion, Jean-Pierre Otoulou headed the Centre region’s gendarmerie legion at the time of the events in January 2023. In that role, he was part of the joint Police-Gendarmerie investigative commission set up immediately after the journalist’s disappearance, who was abducted on January 17, 2023 outside a gendarmerie post in Nkolkodi, on the outskirts of Yaoundé. His mutilated body was found days later, sending shockwaves through the country and well beyond Cameroon’s borders.
The colonel’s testimony didn’t get off to a smooth start. Originally set for July 13, it had to be pushed to the following day after the hearing was suspended due to the health condition of one of the defendants, Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, the former head of the External Research Directorate, known by its French acronym DGRE. Colonel Otoulou had taken the stand in what several observers described as a composed, steady manner, before his questioning was ultimately postponed to July 14. Several defense lawyers had also challenged his appearance, arguing he could not testify until the preliminary investigation record formally established his status as a judicial police officer who had genuinely taken part in the inquiry. The presiding judge rejected that challenge, citing Article 317 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Once he was finally allowed to speak, the colonel’s testimony landed like a bombshell. Over more than five hours, Jean-Pierre Otoulou walked through, in detail, the early investigations conducted under his authority, describing an abduction he said had been carried out with near-surgical precision: no usable surveillance footage, no direct witnesses. His inquiry quickly led him toward specific profiles, men trained in special operations, ultimately resulting in the arrest of Justin Danwe, then head of operations at the DGRE, and his accomplice known as Ebo, a breakthrough that opened the path toward the alleged masterminds behind the assassination.
According to the colonel’s account, two separate teams took part in the surveillance, abduction and killing of the journalist. A first team, made up of Tongue Nana and Daouda, reportedly handled the groundwork of tracking the victim. A second team, composed of Clément Ebo’o, Vincent Godje, known as Le Noir Dawa, Bakaiwe and Martial Zock Mepim, allegedly carried out the abduction and the killing itself, using two vehicles, a black Prado and a pickup truck.
But it was the direct implication of central figures in the case that left the deepest mark. The colonel’s testimony directly implicated businessman Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, former DGRE chief Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, and Lieutenant Colonel Justin Danwe. According to his account, a confrontation staged between Amougou Belinga and Danwe broke the latter, who had until then maintained that any connection between the two men was purely coincidental: « Colonel, I’m changing my statement. I know Mr. Amougou very well, » he reportedly admitted, reversing his earlier claims. Danwe went on to explain that he had sought Amougou Belinga’s help in securing a salary advance from the finance minister, an exchange during which the businessman allegedly asked him to « silence Martinez Zogo, » a phrase the colonel was careful to quote precisely before the tribunal.
The colonel’s account also referenced a WhatsApp message attributed to Bruno Bidjang, Amougou Belinga’s right-hand man, announcing to a third party a coming « D-Day » on which he would show « no mercy » toward the journalist, an additional element that further tightened the legal net around the two men.
Given the weight of these revelations, the tribunal chose, at the end of this marathon session, to adjourn the proceedings to August 3 and 4, at the request of the lawyer representing the Cameroonian state and the DGRE. That adjournment is meant to allow the defense to continue cross-examining Colonel Otoulou, as well as the appearance of a new witness, Eloundou Mesmin.
More than three years after Martinez Zogo’s death, this trial remains closely watched by Cameroonian public opinion, given how deeply the case has crystallized concerns over journalist safety and the real extent of certain influential figures’ power in the country. The resumption of proceedings in early August could bring further decisive developments, as the defense for the main defendants attempts to fight back against testimony that has, so far, proven particularly damning