It has been confirmed that Cameroonian opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary is under the custody of Nigerian security forces in the city of Yola, Adamawa State, after authorities in the country rejected a request from their Cameroonian counterparts to hand him over.
Reports confirm that some specific Cameroonian security forces attempted to "abduct" the former presidential candidate on November 2, with the help of Nigerian security forces.
The Cameroonian security forces told the Nigerian ones that Tchiroma is a "dangerous criminal."
"But when the Nigerian security forces discovered who he was, they refused to agree to the plan to hand him over. He is now under the protection of the Nigerian security forces, which has prevented any attempt to re-arrest him, according to reports.
Tchiroma, who was a candidate in the October 12 presidential election, had been under house arrest at his home in the city of Garoua, in the far north of Cameroon, since the day the election was held.
The attempt to return him to Cameroon came one day after Cameroon's Minister of Territorial Administration,Paul Atanga Nji, warned that Tchiroma Bakary would be brought to court on charges of "incitement to revolt," during a press conference he called in the city of Yaoundé.
Atanga Nji repeatedly emphasized during the conference that Tchiroma broke the law after he declared himself the winner of the presidential election one day after the polls closed, an action the minister described as being exclusively the prerogative of the country's Constitutional Council.
The newspaper Cameroun Actuel reported that four to six soldiers were seen in night-vision gear, carrying guns, getting off in different parts of the Marouare neighborhood, where Tchiroma resides. However, their purpose was unknown.