Former Central African Republic Lawmaker In Sexual Scandal, To Appear In Court July

A former Member of Parliament representing the 2nd constituency of Bouca in the Central African Republic and a one-time leader of the Anti-Balaka armed group has been accused of sexually assaulting a Cameroonian woman.

Teddy Arnauld Weidane, who was stripped of his parliamentary seat last month, is also being accused of theft and fraud on Cameroonian traders.

However, his victims are worried that he may never be brought to justice for his crimes and are gearing up for a big campaign to ensure that he is punished for his actions.

According to reliable sources in France and the Central African Republic, a young Cameroonian lady has laid a complaint against Weidane in the French town of Puteaux la Defense in the Hauts-de-Seine division of Ile-de-France Region for having raped her at gunpoint and later sequestrated her, accompanied by other individuals, against her will.

According to the 19-year-old Cameroonian lady who gave her name as Stella, she and ten other Cameroonian girls who went to the Central African Republic for the baccalaureate examination met a group of Cameroonians in Bangui who made them believe they could not be registered for the exam without passing through third parties.

“While in a restaurant run by a Cameroonian woman in Bangui, Stella was referred by the restaurant owner to a certain ‘priest’, who in actual fact was a renowned crook, as an individual who could help solve her examination problem,” a police source in Bangui told HumAngle Sunday evening.

“During their first contact, the fake priest informed Stella that he could help her obtain the baccalaureate certificate even without sitting for the exam. After receiving various sums of money from the young woman, the fake priest eventually presented her with a fake result slip showing she had passed the exam.”

“Stella immediately recognised the result slip as being fake and decided to go report the fake priest to the Quarter Head of Quartier Sica 2 in order to be paid back the money she had been fleeced of by the fake priest.”

She met Teddy Arnauld Weidane at the Quarter Head’s house and he promised to assist them as a parliamentarian.

Weidane at first seemed so concerned about the predicament of Stella that he contacted the fake priest and the Cameroonian woman who had introduced the fake priest to Stella to immediately return the 500,000 FCFA (about US$1,000) they had fleeced the young lady of.

Two days after Stella’s encounter with him, the Cameroonian woman who introduced Stella to the fake priest called her to inform her that her money had been handed over to  Weidane. 

HumAngle was told that Stella immediately contacted Weidane who confirmed that he had her money and told her to meet him at a drinking spot to collect her money.

“When Stella in the company of a female friend of hers met Weidane at the appointed place and time, he told the young lady that the State Prosecutor of Bangui, Eric Didier Tombo, was not in town and so he could not give her the money without the presence of the State Prosecutor.”

“The following day, Hon. Weidane called Stella and told her to meet him in the same drinking spot where they met the previous day. When they eventually met, he took Stella in his car telling her he was taking her to where he kept her money,” a police source said.

“The parliamentarian eventually took Stella to his house where he threatened her and raped her repeatedly. He eventually took her to Quartier Castors at midnight where he abandoned her.”

“Stella the following day went to the police and reported the matter but was surprised that the police were not ready to record her complaint against an elected representative of the people.”

After her tribulations in the Central African Republic, Stella travelled to France where she reported the matter to French authorities.

Meanwhile, the former parliamentarian is expected to appear in court in July 2021 for aggravated crookery and embezzlement against Cameroonian traders.

The complaint had earlier been deposited by the fleeced traders but the parliamentarian could not be tried because of his parliamentary immunity. It is only now that he can be tried because he has been stripped of his parliamentary seat.