Cameroon Football Federation president sentenced to 15 years in prison

The Special Criminal Court has sentenced the disgraced former president of the Cameroon Football Federation and general manager of the Cameroon Cotton Development Corporation (SODECOTON), Iya Mohammed to 15 years in prison following a corruption scandal that rocked SODECOTON and did involve Lucien Fotso, accountant, Pierre Kaptene, Executive Assistant, Henri Clavier, deputy general manager, Mahamat Karagama, sales director, Christophe Mbaiougam, senior official and Jerome Minlend, CEO of Cameroon Audit Consulting firm (CAC).

The Special Criminal Court through the voice of its president Abdou Yap on Thursday in Yaounde, said Iya Mohammed was guilty and sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment. Similarly Mahamat Karagama absent at the hearing, and Christophe Mbaiougam, on the run, were sentenced to life. These three defendants must jointly pay the sum of 12.180 billion francs in damages to SODECOTON. 

Correspondingly, Fotso Lucien, Henri Clavier, Pierre Jérôme and Kaptene Minlend were declared not guilty for lack of evidence of misappropriation of public funds by coercion. Iya Mohammed and his gang were accused of embezzling a total of 11.293 billion FCFA. Five complaints were made against the main accused and a dozen of its employees at the Special Criminal Court. These included the undue payment of wage benefits, oil inventory losses and kickbacks and illegal spending on Coton Sport football club.