Alphonse Siyam Siwe (born August 4, 1953[1] [2]) is a Cameroonian politician who served as Minister of Energy and Water from 2004 to 2006 and was previously the Director-General of the Autonomous Port of Douala. In 2007, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for corruption.
Born in Douala,[2] Siwe was Deputy Director of Labogenie from 1981 to 1984[1] and Director of Labogenie from 1984 to 1990.[1] [3] He was appointed as Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidency on September 7, 1990,[1] serving in that position until 1992. He subsequently became Secretary-General of the Ministry of Public Works in 1995 before being elected to the National Assembly from Haut-Nkam constituency in the 1997 parliamentary election.[2] He became Director-General of the Autonomous Port of Douala in April 1998 and remained in that post until February 2005.[4]
In the 2002 parliamentary election, Siwe was re-elected to the National Assembly from Haut-Nkam constituency,[3] [5] where his list, that of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, received 49.58 percent of the vote and won two of the three available seats.[5] Siwe also served as Mayor of Bafang.[2] [3]
Siwe was appointed as Minister of Energy and Water in the government named on December 8, 2004.[3] [6] He served in that post for a little over a year; on February 24, 2006, he was dismissed from the government and arrested[7] for allegedly participating in the theft of about 38 billion CFA francs in public funds during his stint as Director-General of the Autonomous Port of Douala. This was widely believed to be a witch hunt and an attempt by those in power at preventing his rise in popularity; which they saw as a threat.[8] He was tried along with 12 other defendants[9] in December 2007. On December 13, 2007, verdicts in the trial were announced; Siwe received the most severe sentence, 30 years in prison.[8] [9] He was convicted on six charges and acquitted on ten. Three of the other 12 defendants were also found guilty,[9] including Edouard Nathanaël Etondè Ekotto and François Marie Siéwé Nitcheu, who respectively received 15- and 25-year sentences.[8] [9]