WasDenis Sassou Nguesso co-opted by the KGB

Concerning the latter point, he smiled again and said: “it was his (Denis Sassou Nguesso) ruse and secondly he was overtaken by officers who told him point blank that, it was the most senior ranked officer who could succeed Ngouabi and the most senior officer then, was Joachim Yhombi-Opango”. Then he added:  “Sassou Nguesso being a wise man, he did not insist, when officers barred him from succeeding or taking over the rule of the country after the death of Marien”.  But he added: two years after the death of Marien Ngouabi, which is in 1979, Denis Sassou Nguesso got what he had planned, but this time around, in a bloodless coup”. He went on: “Denis Sassou Nguesso having orchestrated a smear campaign against Joachim Yhombi-Opango as a bourgeois. For it was claimed that, Joachim Yhombi-Opango led a life of opulence and had bought a sleeping bed worth FCAF 2 million, during the same period, when he (Joachim Yhombi-Opango) was asking Congolese to lead an “austere lifestyle”. Anani Bindji Rabier added all those details to show me that, what Denis Sassou Nguesso had written in his book regarding the succession of Marien Ngouabi were mere lies. He told me that, Denis Sassou Nguesso was very cunning.

He gave me an example on how Denis Sassou Nguesso maneuvered to overthrow Joachim Yhombi-Opango after he had succeeded to assassinate Marien Ngouabi. He said: “Joachim Yhombi-Opango came as President, to attend a meeting of the Congolese Workers Party or PCT in 1979 and left as an ordinary citizen, because he was ruled not communist enough or ideologically insufficient”.  And he concluded: “on that day of the bloodless coup d’état organized by Denis Sassou Nguesso against General Yhombi-Opango, the only person who protested on that day of February 1979, was Ekoudji Akala and because of that, he was almost assassinated and had to go on self exile. He is back now in Brazzaville, old, tired and too afraid to speak, because Denis Sassou Nguesso will kill him or anybody who dares to speak the truth on the assassination of Marien Ngouabi.” He then began reading the part of his book that is focused on the assassination of Marien Ngouabi. He read: “Denis Sassou Nguesso changed camped when he was send to Moscow by Marien Ngouabi for training and there, he (Denis Sassou Nguesso) was co-opted by the KGB with a mission to keep Congo in the eastern block. And when, Denis Sassou Nguesso returned to Brazzaville, even though Marien Ngouabi was a firebrand Communist, he (Marien Ngouabi) still had some penchant for the western block”.  

In other words, Marien Ngouabi was assassinated because he wanted to rejoin the western block that, he had rejected in 1968.Then he jumped and said: “Those who were the protective shield of Marien Ngouabi were   Joachim Yhombi-Opango, who was the Joint chief of staff of the Army, Bonaventure Engobo, a security attaché to Marien Ngouabi and a certain Ibarra who was the head of national security or the Director of the Police”. According Anani Bindji Rabier, the plan to assassinate Marien Ngouabi by Denis Sassou Nguesso, started when the second wrote a damaging report against Joachim Yhombi-Opango to Marien Ngouabi. The said report was so bad against the Joachim Yhombi-Opango, that Marien decided to discharge Joachim Yhombi-Opango from his post and appointed him to head the Palm oil Corporation or in French Regie des Palmerais”.