ALIEN SMUGGLING CASE EMBROILS PARLIAMENTARIANS,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YAOUNDE 000074

SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/C

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/15/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV KCOR CVIS KFRP PHUM CM
SUBJECT: ALIEN SMUGGLING CASE EMBROILS PARLIAMENTARIANS,
THREATENS ELECAM HEAD

REF: YAOUNDE 36

Classified By: Political Officer Tad Brown for Reasons 1.4 b and d.


1. (U) Summary. Post is investigating
allegations--reported in the independent press--that Samuel
Azuu Fonkam, recently named to head Cameroon's new elections
agency (ELECAM),abused his former position as the Deputy
Secretary General of the National Assembly to provide
official cover for malafide visa applicants in exchange for
cash payments. If the allegations against Azuu are proven,
we believe that Biya will be hard-pressed to keep Azuu at the
helm of ELECAM, which is already beset by controversy (ref
a). Beyond Azuu's role, however, Post already possesses
ample evidence that at least two Members of Parliament--Rose
Abunaw Makia and Francis Abi Enwi--used their positions to
help malafide visa applicants obtain visas under official
cover for this and previous "official" trips. End summary.

Azuu Implicated in the Press
============================


2. (SBU) The January 8 issue of private daily newspaper
Mutations ran the headline "Illegal Immigration" over a front
page story titled "ELECAM President Implicated In Fake
Document Scam." From that article and subsequent
conversations, Post has learned that airport police detained
four individuals seeking to board the December 26 Air Maroc
flight en route to the United States. Airport police grew
suspicious because the travelers, who possessed travel
documents indicating they were National Assembly employees on
official business, did not have service passports and
otherwise did not appear to be government officials. Poloff
spoke with Leger Ntiga, the Mutations journalist who broke
the story. Ntiga said his contacts with the police told him
that the students admitted, in secondary questioning, that
they had each paid 3,000,000 CFA (about $6,000) to Azuu so
that he would furnish official cover for the fraudulent trip.

The Fake Delegation
===================


3. (SBU) Post's Consular files reveal that visas were
issued to the four individuals as part of a delegation of
National Assembly officials traveling to Irvine, California
for a conference on water management. In the initial
interviews in early December, CONOFF requested additional
evidence of their standing with the National Assembly; the
applicants submitted travel orders and pay slips as evidence
that they worked on the National Assembly staff. Francis Abi
Enwi, a Member of Parliament, contacted CONOFF to assure him
that the applications were genuine and to provide detailed
descriptions of the trip and the role of the alleged support
staff. The supporting documents included doctored documents
from the National Assembly and an invitation to the
conference at the University of California at Irvine.

This Isn't the First Time
=========================


4. (SBU) The fraudulent invitation from the University of
California submitted with the delegation pushed by Abi Enwi
was a doctored replication of a genuine letter of invitation
issued to Rose Abunaw Makia, a Member of Parliament and the
Vice President of the National Assembly. Abunaw is
implicated in an earlier fraudulent trip with similar
characteristics; in April 2008 she lobbied the Consular
Section to issue visas to 17 individuals who, she argued in
emails and phone calls to CONOFF, were National Assembly
staff traveling on official business. CONOFF reviewed the
Arrival Departure Information System database for the members
of that delegation and found that none of the 17 individuals
whom Abunaw helped receive visas have yet departed the United
States.

Is Fonkam Azuu Involved?
========================


5. (U) Since the January 8 Mutations article, Fonkam Azuu
has publicly denied that he received bribes from the members
of the delegation pushed by Abi Enwi or that he helped them
obtain visas. A spokesperson for the ruling Cameroon
People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) party, of which Fonkam
Azuu has been a prominent member, dismissed the Mutations
story as a complete fabrication. Gregoire Owona, Minister at
the Presidency in charge of relations with the National
Assembly and a senior CPDM official, condemned Mutations'
reporting as malicious and false. In response to these
statements, Ntiga told Poloff on January 13 that Mutations

YAOUNDE 00000074 002 OF 002


was considering bringing a defamation suit against any
officials who continued to accuse Mutations of fabricating
the story.

Raising the Issue with the GRC
==============================


7. (C) Ambassador met with Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni on
January 15 to discuss USG views on ELECAM's leadership (ref
b). When the Ambassador told Inoni that Embassy was
investigating the apparent links to Members of Parliament and
Azuu specifically, Inoni requested that the Ambassador let
him know of any evidence of malfeasance from GRC officials,
promising any transgressions would be dealt with harshly.
CONOFF and A/RSO met with representatives from the police and
the protocol office of the National Assembly, both of whom
confirmed that the four individuals are not officials at the
National Assembly and that the documents submitted in support
of their applications were fraudulent. On January 15 and 17,
respectively, Consular Chief informed Joe Nzume, Director of
the Americas Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and
Cavaye Djibril, President of the National Assembly, about
our concerns with the Azuu, Enwi and Abunaw cases, which they
promised to look into.


8. (C) Post sent a letter dated January 21 to Inoni's
office requesting further information from the Government of
Cameroon (GRC) regarding these violations of the visa
process. Inoni telephoned the Ambassador to say he had
"shown" the letter to "the boss" (Biya). Inoni said the GRC
would take steps against those implicated in the scandal.

Comment: Taking Action to
Protect the Visa Process
=========================


8. (C) We are outraged that Members of Parliament so easily
abused the GRC's formal channels to subvert US visa law. We
have conveyed--and will continue to press--the severity of
the matter to the Prime Minister, officials from the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, the National Assembly, and the Police.
For their efforts to smuggle illegal aliens into the US, Post
has found Rose Abunaw Makia and Francis Abi Enwi ineligible
under Section 212(a)(6)(E) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act. That Inoni immeditately raised the issue with Biya and
promised swift action gives us reason to be hopeful that the
GRC will take some action in response to these transgressions.

Comment: (cont.) Fonkam Azuu's Case
===================================


9. (C) Fonkam Azuu's alleged involvement is another matter.
Although we do not yet have evidence of Fonkam Azuu's
involvement, Ntiga's report (shored up by subsequent reports
from other media houses) that the students implicated Fonkam
Azuu gives us pause. If it is true that Fonkam Azuu accepted
bribes in exchange for abusing his official position to help
malafide applicants, Post would consider requesting a
decision from the Department regarding possible 212f and
other ineligibilities. Perhaps most importantly, such a
determination would place tremendous pressure on the
Government of Cameroon, and especially President Paul Biya,
to reconsider Fonkam Azuu's nomination to ELECAM. End
Comment.
GARVEY