Claim: The claim made by Paul Chouta and other journalists including bloggers and websites concerning the brutal arrest of Roger Tuilé by gendarmes for involvement in the Anglophone crisis and denouncing public officials for embezzlement in Yaoundé is fake.
Context and justification
On December 17th 2023, Paul Chouta a journalist made a tweet concerning the brutal arrest of the former Director General of the newspaper L’écho de l’East Roger Tuilè, alongside his three minor children, all severely brutalised by elements of Brigade de Nvog Betsi
The post had 21.7k views, 91 retweets, 22 quotes and 64 likes.
During our investigation, we found out that different stories were published on social media in regards to his arrest.
Cameroon web a news website on the 17th of December 2023, affirmed that Roger Tuilé and his son’s were arrested and brutalised by the gendarmes, but didn’t say the reasons for his arrest.
That same day, Le TGV de l’info brought online the reasons for his arrest on their Facebook official handle. They reported that Roger Tuilè was arrested due to his involvement with the anglophone crisis. Few minutes later, they deleted the post, stating that, after deploying a team to Nvog Betsi Brigade, they found out that he was rather involved in a fight with a lady.
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Another source we saw on the Internet, Panorama papers, brought another version of the story. They reported that Roger Tuilé is neither a fighter nor an ambazonian advocate. The report explains that the political figure and journalist is being framed up by some government officials in Yaoundé as a means of getting back at him for denouncing them as frauders.
In a national context, where the rights and freedom of journalists are constantly violated, This type of online publication can contribute to further deteriorating the country’s image and can help to exacerbate social tensions in relation to the anglophone crisis and questionable public management.
Fact checking process
Due to the misinformation surrounding Roger Tuilès arrest, we deemed it necessary to find out the real reason for his arrest.
First of all, we contacted Paul Chouta on Facebook who was apparently the first person to publish the information on social media. He clearly stated that Roger Tuilé was arrested because he had a brutal fight with his former lover.
He equally referred us to this post on Facebook which narrates the instances leading to Roger Tuilé’s arrest. The post corrects his previous post which said he had no idea why Roger Tuilé was arrested, as seen in the first screenshot of this work.
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The next source we contacted was actucameroun. Actucameroun is a news website had earlier notified that Roger Tuilé’ was arrested due to his involvement in the Anglophone crisis as seen on the screenshots below In a publication by beaufis Zambo on actucameroun news website
They confirmed that after deploying a team to speak with Roger Tuilé and the lady in question at the Brigade de Nvog Betsy, they found out that he was arrested because of the fight
The full findings from actucameroun in the following link
Camer.be is equally one of the whistleblower. They debunk the claim made by Roger Tuilé’ that he was arrested for being involved in the anglophone crisis through a thorough investigation. They found out that he was involved in a fight.
Our next resource person was the commander of the Nvog Betsi Brigade in Yaoundé A/C ONANA NGAGA Clément where Roger Tuilé is said to have been taken to that night. He gave us a meeting date on Friday 19th 2024 where we had a one in one talk with him. All he said was well noted and we quote
“ Le tapage médiatique dont Monsieur TUILE Roger fait l’objet est le suivant: Il a été interpellé sur un sujet qu’il a commis. Un soir la patrouille de la Brigade dirigé par un Officier du quartier général de Biyem-assi patrouillait et ayant été sur les lieux du fait, ont vu la fille se faisant tabasser par Monsieur TUILE et son fils, et vu la gravité des faits, étant question d’emmener la fille à l’hôpital, il refusa de payer les soins médicaux. Le Lieutenant qui est Officier décide de se déporter à la brigade de Mvog-betsi pour sa propre sécurité.
Selon les dires, il faisait la cour à la jeune fille qui en question vend les produits de Nourane (Foster). Et comme son fils aîné avait l’habitude de manipuler le téléphone, il a commencé à envoyer les messages en son nom, et il s’est mis à communiquer avec la fille et après la fille s’est rendu compte que ce n’est plus le père mais le fils qui la drague.
Le jour des faits, Monsieur TUILE Roger est assis dans le même bar avec ses 3 enfants, et la fille est assise dans un autre coin avec son petit ami (qui est marié) et il était question que son petit ami rentre chez lui car il se faisait un peu tard. Donc, la fille reste au bar seule et monsieur TUILE et son fils aîné (qui faisait la cour à la fille) décide d’engager une bagarre et casse 4 chaises sur la fille. La brigade du quartier général passant par ce lieu, décide de les conduire à la gendarmerie de Mvog-betsi.
Monsieur TUILE aurait passé la nuit en cellule avec son fils aîné qui courtisait aussi la fille. Ses deux autres enfants mineurs ont dormi à la brigade mais pas dans les cellules, car il se faisait déjà très tard pour leur laisser rentrer à la maison.
Les faits stipule: Blessures et trafic d’influence (vu que monsieur TUILE est un homme public, et a alerté ses contacts (Ministères et haut commis de la république)
La fille avait fait un certificat médical (ITT), et plus de 8 jours conférés à la blessure simple.
Numéro PV: 505 (du 17 Décembre 2023)
Parquet a reçu le dossier le 28 Décembre 2023
Bordereau de transmission 511/2 Brigade de Mvog-betsi”.
Conclusion
With the information we gathered on this story from very reliable sources, we can clearly see that Roger Tuilé was arrested for engaging in a fight with his lover, alongside his oldest son who was also making advances towards the lady in question. The injury on his head is the result of the fight . The lady in question incurred more severe injuries.
All the websites that had I initially published that he was arrested for engyin the anglophone crisis and equally for denouncing public officials in Yaoundé have deleted the post and come up with a new narrative after investigations.
Roger Tuilé was not involved in the anglophone crisis, nor was he arrested because he denounced embezzlement by public officials in Yaoundé.
