Murder of Cameroon journalist Zogo: Prominent tycoon arrested

Two weeks after the dead body of Cameroonian journalist Salomon Mbani Zogo better known as Martinez Zogo was found, an influential tycoon is being questioned.

Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga was arrested Monday (Feb. 06) according to the Cameroonian Communications ministry.

Belinga’s media group l’Anecdote confirmed its owner was undergoing questioning by the gendarmerie’s top institution.

Martinez Zogo’s mutilated body was found Sunday, January 22 near Soa, a suburb of Yaoundé.

His murder left many shocked in Cameroon as NGOs continue to call out violations of press freedom and freedom of speech.

The 51-year-old was the host of popular daily radio show, Embouteillage or Gridlock in English.

On the air, he regularly tackled cases of corruption and alleged embezzlement, not hesitating to question important personalities by name.

Amougou Belinga was one of them. The businessman is reputedly a friend of several ministers.

Fellow journalists paid their respects to Zogo urging for an investigation.

Cameroonian President Paul Biya ordered Thursday, February 2 a probe into the abduction and subsequent brutal killing of the journalist.

That same day, the presidency announced several people had been arrested.

Reporters without Borders alleged last week that "the outcome of the investigations [remained] very uncertain as the affair’s ramifications reach up to the highest level of the state while the political environment [was] described by several local sources as verging on insurrectionary."