Preliminary inquiries into mysterious death of the bishop of Bafia suggest that the deceased had drowned

The main prosecutor at the Centre Appeal Court has issued a communiqué claiming that there is no sign of violence on the corpse. Bishop Jean Marie Benoit Balla mysteriously disappeared at the beginning of last month. Three days or so later he was found at the banks of the Sanaga River. An investigation was launched to uncover the mystery.

In the meantime,the corpse of the servant of God has been handed to the church for burial. The investigation continues, they say. In the aftermath of the incident Catholic bishops in Cameroon had made a spectacular outing during which they asserted in very strong terms that their brother had been "brutally murdered", urging the powers that be to shed more light on the situation as soon as possible.

If the investigation ends up with a note like what was obtained on Tuesday, we wonder how disastrous the bishops' declaration could be . It had equally been rumoured that there were no signs of drowning on the corpse. It was said that investigators had not found water in the lungs, suggesting that the bishop had died before finding himself in the river. Tuesday's declaration is said to emanate from examinations done by national and international doctors on the remains of the bishop.