By Peterkins Manyong
Dr. Pius Lecigah, successor of late John Kohtem, at the helm of the SDF in Balikumbat, recently escaped a murder attempt by gunmen who are yet to be identified.
One of his wives, Evelyne Lecigah, was shot in the belly in a gun battle that ensued between the attackers and Lecigah.
Speaking to The Post, Lecigah said nine gunmen invaded his residence in Douala at about 2:00 am on Monday, October 18. He said they rammed at the door ordering that it should be opened for them to collect what they wanted and go away peacefully. If not, they reportedly warned, they would be obliged to bludgeon their way into the house.
“The first person to get out of bed was Regine Lecigah, my first wife who came into my room and woke me,” said Lecigah.
Lecigah said he immediately took his loaded gun, switched off the lights and confronted the invaders in the parlour.
“We exchanged gunfire for several minutes in the course of which my second wife, Evelyne Lecigah, was shot in the belly.”
He said he could not determine how much injury he inflicted on his assailants. But he said he was sure they considered him too tough to fight as he suddenly heard one of them shouting to his accomplices from outside, in English: “Please come and let us go. This man’s bullets will never get finished.”
In their escape, the attackers invaded the boy’s quarters from where they took FCFA 33,000 and a traveller’s bag.
Lecigah said he conveyed his wife to the Laquintine Hospital that same night. She was operated upon and the bullet, lodged in her belly, removed. He later deposited a complaint with the security forces.
Lecigah says he suspects nobody and could not say the attack was politically motivated as some of his sympathisers think.
Lecigah’s Stewardship In SDF
Lecigah, 38, was elected Balikumbat SDF District Chairman on September 18 during a Ngoketunjia SDF Divisional Conference.
T
he conference was attended by militants from all the five villages of Balikumbat Subdivision; Balikumbat, Bafanji, Bamukumbit, Baligashu and Baligansing. He was later to launch a massive campaign for the 2004 Presidential election in Balikumbat on September 27.
On October 11, he personally moved from one polling station to the other to ensure that the militants were not harassed or prevented from voting by local CPDM barons. He spoke against electoral fraud, especially ambulant voting with sufficient vehemence to attract the Ngoketunjia SDO to Balikumbat.
To ensure success, Lecigah told The Post that he is setting up SDF supporters' club in all the quarters of Balikumbat beginning with “Bonanjo”, his own quarter.
Lecigah is a tradi-practitioner. Prior to the attack, a Balikumbat youth, whose name The Post got only as Sama, was killed while returning from a tribal meeting in Douala.
He was the twin brother of Sama Sikod, one of the suspects detained in connection with the murder of late Kohtem.
You see again, the so-called fon of balikumbat is in his so-called palace, breathing and eating, while those who either watched or helped him in the killing of John Kohtem are to pay the prize. How long shall it take for the investigation to be over? Is it in abstract space that the fon lives? My goodness, the fon confessed to Kohtem's sister, his wife. Where else does the system want to get the truth about what happened?
Posted by: nf | Friday, 29 October 2004 at 02:33 PM