Guard escaping with President Biya’s money arrested

He was intercepted on the third floor of Wardolf Astoria hotel in the US where the president is putting up for the UN general assembly as he tried to escape with the president’s heavy-loaded suitcase of money

A close military aide of President Paul Biya, who attempted to escape with an important sum of the president’s money during his current stay in the US, has been flown back to the country. Reports say he is being held at the presidential guard detention cell at Unity Palace.

The presidential guard, whose identity we got simply as Lieutenant Emane, is reported to have been intercepted when he was suspected of trying to escape with the president’s usually heavy-loaded suitcase of money on the third floor of Wardolf Astoria hotel in the US, where the president is lodging as he attends the 63rd UN general assembly.

Le Jour newspaper reported that the man who has visibly always been a loyal, docile and an unsuspecting character was picked up thanks to the Swiss security men who alerted the presidential security at the hotel of suspected movements by a vehicle outside the hotel building.

And a prompt investigation by the security soon revealed that the vehicle was about to be used by the lieutenant who was planning to escape with the president’s billions of FCFA.

Back in the country, he was whisked off at the airport by presidential security men in plain clothes and conveyed straight to the detention cell at State House.

The lieutenant is said to have won the president’s trust and confidence that allowed him to enjoy the dignity of the president’s closest errand boy. Sometimes he was bearer of the president’s confidential mails, we learnt.

He has since his incarceration been interrogated several times by interrogators of the presidential guard and the judicial police.