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The National Chairman of the principal opposition political party in Cameroon Ni John Fru Ndi, has once again exuded rage over the massacre that happened in Menka-Pinyin in Santa subdivision.
The SDF chief scribe revisited the shocking mishap during day one of the “Listen to the People” mission of the commission of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism in Bamenda on May 31, 2018. Meeting in the conference hall of Presbyterian Church, Ntamulung, the members of the Musonge Commission exchanged with the vital forces and the people of the principal city of the Northwest region.
At the beginning of proceedings, the Chairman of the committee, Peter Mafany Musonge, set the tone of the discussions with a speech, in which he called on the participants to “express themselves without fear of being arrested”.
During the meeting, the population of the region told the commission that the Anglophone crisis was more than the commission to handle. The SDF senator for the Northwest Nkeze Emilia, told the commission that all what was being said were things that have been said several times before but nothing was done in response. She added that the position of the common man had not been taken into consideration even though they constitute the hardest hit of the victims. She advised the commission to act as a bridge between the common man and the head of state. Another participant a businessman in Bamenda, told the commission that for peace to reign in the Anglophone regions, all those arrested because of the crisis “must be released” while those who have escaped to the Diaspora be granted amnesty. He added that the head of state should make an apology speech to the nation to heal and assuage the pains of the people.
Other participants had preoccupations such as non translation of official documents into English language, poor road infrastructure in the region, brutality of military and police and corruption as the main issues that continue to trigger the crisis. To some people, dialogue cannot take place in the absence of Anglophones in the Diaspora.
After this series of interventions from some participants at the meeting, the President of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), Ni John Fru Ndi, took the floor to make known his point of view on the situation of the crisis in the two English speaking regions. Without any ado, the chairman returned to the killings of Menka-Pinyin, describing the statements of Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary on the subject as “lies”. According to him, the security forces, during a raid, must capture the perpetrators of violence and use them to obtain vital information, which will help fight the source of the problem. “But in Menka, everyone was killed. If they had nothing to hide, or any need to erase all traces of what might have been searched, why did these soldiers follow the motorcycle of a resident who was carrying one of the survivors of this massacre to hospital, took them out, then brought back to Menka to shoot them down? This, for me, was meant to erase all traces and eliminate anyone who could reveal what really happened,” said Fru Ndi. Fru Ndi, proceeded to lambast the management of the Anglophone crisis. He chided administrative authorities for not visiting Menka-Pinyin, after the saga. “If I was young, I would have been in the bush fighting with others,” Fru Ndi concluded.
The “listen to the people” mission of the National Commission on Bilingualism and Multiculturalism lasted two days and brought together political actors, civil society organisations and administrative and traditional authorities of the Northwest region amongst others.
The Chairman of that commission Peter Mafane Musonge, assured that he was going to forward propositions of the people of Bamenda to the highest authority of the country.
A similar mission had been undertaken in the Southwest region before that of Bamenda.
By Landzeh Verla
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