Among the first measures announced by General Oligui Nguema, who became president of the transition: the release of prisoners of conscience. Thus, some are calling for the release of Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang, convicted for the failed coup attempt of January 7, 2019. This is the case of former student leader Ballack Obame, who served time in prison under Ali Bongo , accused of being one of Kelly Ondo Obiang’s accomplices.
5 mins
With our special correspondent in Libreville, Amélie Tulet
He first cried on August 30 while following the proclamation of Ali Bongo’s victory for a third term on TV. “ I said Lord, I prefer to die now or go stay in the village, because I no longer have hope. » Disappointed, he goes to bed and a few hours later, his friends call him. He thinks he’s dreaming. “ They tell me “little brother, put on the TV, we’re saved, the soldiers have taken power!” It was like I was in a daze, and in the morning I woke up, I went to them: “You saved us, thank God.” »
Ballack Obame, now 33 years old, suffered under the presidency of Ali Bongo Ondimba. In the 2010s, he was a student leader: “ I was embarrassing because I demanded better study conditions for students. They offered me bribery to silence me. »
The “Conscious Student” movement of which he is at the head, won the election of the Omar Bongo University Student Mutual Association in 2014, “ to the surprise of the authorities who had financed small groups to counter us. » “The mandate was two years. I haven’t even done a month. They arrested me, because I was not a powerist. »
He says he spent around three weeks in the premises of B2 – the general directorate of counter-intervention and security -, tortured in the basement. He refuses to give up his demands: the release and rehabilitation of several arrested or excluded students. The “Conscious Student” movement is dissolved. The presidency of the Mutuelle is entrusted to his opponent: Ange Gaël Makaya. Ballack Obame is excluded from the University.
Without a passport and therefore without the possibility of continuing his studies abroad, he decided to join the National Union (UN), opposition party to President Ali Bongo Ondimba, led by Paulette Missambo – current president of the Senate office of the transition -. He became national delegate in charge of communications, then vice-president of Youth of the UN.
Contacted by Kelly Ondo Obiang
On January 7, 2019, while President Ali Bongo Ondimba was out of the country recovering from his stroke, a member of the Republican Guard attempted a coup d’état. The Republican Guard, at that time, was not yet led by General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguemaauthor of the coup d’état of August 30, 2023, who became transitional president.
That day, when Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang attempted his coup, he called Ballack Obame. “ Being a soldier and in intelligence, he monitored the actions of the young leaders. This is what he told me when we were together in the central prison. On January 7, 2019, I lived right opposite Radio Télévision Gabonaise (RTG). Around 4 a.m., I heard gunshots. I wonder what’s going on. I receive a call from a hidden number: “it’s Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Biang”. This is the first time I’ve heard this name. “I know that you are one of the real ones, the first real one in Gabon and I am calling you to tell you that the army has decided to put an end to the suffering of the Gabonese people, spread it widely.” »
Ballack Obame [qui était aussi observateur de France 24, NDLR] travels to see for himself, finds a crowd in front of the RTG, takes photos of the putschist soldiers. He assures that he had never spoken to Kelly Ondo Obiang before that day, and did not know him. He goes back home. The coup attempt fails. The assault is made on the RTG. The soldiers are arrested.
Two weeks later, on January 21, 2019, Ballack Obame was arrested. A hood over his head, handcuffed with his hands behind his back, he returns to B2, claims to have been tortured again. “We had hot water poured down our backs”. The only civilian convicted for this case, Ballack Obame received 2 years and 7 months in prison and a fine of 15 million CFA francs.
Isolation in Appendix 1: “ You are becoming crazy »
During his detention, he even experienced isolation in the sinister Annex 1, where Ali Bongo Ondimba’s former chief of staff, Brice Laccruche Alihanga (BLA), was also locked up for several months.
“Even on your worst enemy, you can’t wish that. Someone who has served you? Do you treat him like that? In our cells, our only fellow inmates were rats, who were walking on us. If God didn’t exist, you would go crazy, there is no light, no windows, you don’t know if it’s day, if it’s night, you don’t even see your body! »
Ballack Obame wishes that no one ever knows Annex 1 again. He asks the president of the transition, who promised freedom of opinion, to release Kelly Ondo Obiang. “ It is not logical that Kelly is still in prison today, while people convicted of theft and embezzlement are released like Renaud Allogho Akoué, former director general of the National Health Insurance and Social Guarantee Fund (CNAMGS). ). What the CTRI soldiers denounced on August 30, 2023, is what Kelly denounced in 2019. »