The Cameroonian State and the Atou cabinet are engaged in a fierce battle in the case of alleged misappropriation of public funds at the Autonomous Port of Douala (PAD), under investigation at the Special Criminal Court (TCS) in Yaoundé. At the heart of this dispute is control of the management of the assets of three former Crown corporations.

They are the National Ports Office of Cameroon (ONPC, ancestor of the PAD), the National Office for the Marketing of Commodities (ONCPB) and the National Railway Authority of Cameroon (RNCF or Regifercam). The cumulative assets of these three entities are estimated at a hundred billion FCFA. The investigation at the TCS was, in fact, opened following a denunciation by Lazare Atou of the eponymous firm, which has been managing the assets of these former Crown corporations for about ten years now. This denunciation would be made at a time when the management of the assets of the ex-ONPC, ONCPB and Regifercam, which feeds battles with speckled foils within the seraglio and has put government solidarity to the test for more than a decade, is taking a new turn. Indeed, on June 2, 2021, the Minister of State, Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic (SG/PR), Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, notified the CEO of the PAD of the agreement of the President of the Republic to engage, without delay, the procedures for the return of the residual assets of the former ONPC to the PAD.