A Cameroonian businessman has been detained in connection with the murder of Martinez Zogo, a notable journalist whose dismembered remains were discovered near the capital Yaounde last month after he was abducted. This is according to the national radio station CRTV.
The case has rocked the Central African country, with certain government and security personnel named as suspects by the media. The president’s administration announced last week that numerous suspects had been apprehended, but provided no further information.
Zogo, the director of private radio station Amplitude FM, was kidnapped by unknown assailants on January 17 after attempting to enter a police station to escape his pursuers.
His body was discovered on January 22. Zogo had recently broadcast a story regarding an alleged embezzlement involving a media outfit with government ties owned by businessman Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga.
Belinga’s employer, L’Anecdote Group, which runs a private television channel, acknowledged his arrest in a statement issued on Monday. The arrest of Amougou Belinga and other accused persons comes a few days after he was questioned at the Secretariat of State Defence (SED) in Yaounde and later released.
Zogo’s assassination was the latest in a series of attacks on journalists in Cameroon, which has a dynamic press but a long history of crushing opposition under President Paul Biya.