After B’da Killings

*Fru Ndi Confronts Gov; Denounces Police As Ruthless, Reckless
*GMI Boss Pleads For Forgiveness
*Governor Promises Commission Of Inquiry

By Chris Mbunwe & Peterkins Manyong

The National Chairman of the Social Democratic Front, SDF, John Fru Ndi, has confronted the Northwest Governor, Koumpa Issa, over the recent shootings during which two commercial motorbike riders, popularly  known as 'bendskins' died.

"Bendskins" mount barricade

Fru Ndi led a delegation of Parliamentarians and the Northwest Provincial Executive Bureau of the SDF Up-Station in the morning of Wednesday, October 17.The delegation only left the Governor's office five hours later when the Governor promised that a Commission of Inquiry would immediately go to work.

Marc Douho:Severely wounded

After meeting the Governor, Fru Ndi described the police who shot and killed the two people as "irresponsible boys."They are not only ruthless but reckless, he said.He blamed Pierre Minlo, the former police boss, who handpicked, "these boys from the streets and here we are, today, with group of irresponsible and reckless fellows in the name of police force."

Fru Ndi went to the Governor, first, to register his indignation about the killings and, second, to point out that this wasn't the first time the GMI police in Bamenda were using live bullets on unarmed citizens. 

"This is unbearable because, before live bullets are given to police or gendarmes, the number of bullets are recorded but, today, you find bullets flying all over the place," Fru Ndi said.

Advice To 'Bendskins"

Referring to the motorbike riders, Fru Ndi advised them to obtain all the documents as stipulated by law. "Let me make it abundantly clear that, as much as I won't tolerate any harassment and killings by police or gendarmes, I will equally not tolerate indiscipline among motorbike riders. Let them pay for all the documents as required by the law," he said.
Talking about the response of the Governor to his delegation, Fru Ndi said he sounded sympathetic and he told them that the SDO was handling the situation.

Esther Sirri: Nursing her wounds

The Governor, Fru Ndi added, said the Administration was thinking about possible assistance to the victims. In addition, he said he would contact the SDF Treasury to chip in financial assistance to the five victims of the police brutality he visited, who are currently receiving treatment both at the St. Mary Soledad Clinic and Bamenda General Hospital.

SDO Apologises

Meanwhile, during a crisis meeting with the motorbike riders at the Provincial Delegation of MINPLADAT Up-Station Wednesday, October 17, the SDO for Mezam, Jules Marcelin Djaga, apologised for the shootings and said they could have been avoided if the two parties opted for dialogue.

Patrick Che:Shot dead

He called on the Motorbike Syndicate to sensitise their members on their responsibilities towards State institutions.Djaga also asked the motorbike riders to report any cases of police or gendarme harassment. He urged the forces of Law and Order not to overreact in such circumstances, adding that a Commission of Inquiry would be set up to probe into the killings.

A certain Francis Beke, who spoke on behalf of the bendskin riders, said the use of violence to extort money from the bendskins is not acceptable. He appealed to the government to help regularise their sector.

GMI Boss Calls For Forgiveness

The GMI Police Commissioner, Blaise Mbincho, during the programme, "Highlands Morning Show" on CRTV Bamenda Wednesday, October 17, appealed to the population and the families of those killed, and those now hospitalised to forgive the police for what happened.
Said he: "It wasn't deliberate. They were stray bullets that caught the victims.

I really regret what happened and I am appealing to the families to take heart. We shall continue to educate the police under our care not to react the way some of them did. You will understand that if, for example, you have 100 children, not all of them will receive instructions the same way."

Talking about what provoked the situation, the Commissioner argued that the huge crowd at the GMI Police Station started pelting the police with stones."The bendskin riders even threw a local petrol bomb at us. They took a bottle with fuel and filled it with pebbles and flung it at us.

Here at the GMI, we have heavy ammunitions and, in the presence of the SDO and others, the police had to disperse them with tear gas."According to Mbincho, nobody ordered the police to use live bullets."If we had to open fire the way the population is thinking, the death toll could have been in the hundreds."

Backdrop

It would be recalled that on Tuesday, October 16, police of the Bamenda Mobile Intervention Unit, GMI, opened fire on hundreds of commercial motorcyclists killing two and wounding several others.

The incident came just a week after the Ecumenical Service for Peace, SeP, organised a two-day training seminar with police and bendskins at the Presbyterian Church, Ntamulung.
During that seminar, SeP Regional Coordinator, Richard Ndi Tantoh, expressed optimism that the experiences they acquired on how to work in town could help reduce the tension that had been mounting between the two parties.

The police were accused of perpetually harassing and extorting from taxi drivers and bendskins. They, in turn, said benskins escape or jump check points because most of them don't have official documents.

The Tuesday police-bendskins confrontation sparked off on Monday, October 15, at about 5 pm when some bendskins were returning from Bafut where they had attended the funeral of one of their colleague's father.

At Mile 9, on the Bafut-Bamenda highway, police at a checkpoint had halted the bendskins, throwing a spiked bar across the road on which a bendskin, Marc Douho Ngwouafong, somersaulted and landed in a gutter sustaining severe injuries on the face, legs and arms.

When the police officers saw what happened, they took to their heels while Douho's mates rushed him to St. Mary Soledad Clinic where he is currently receiving treatment.
Talking to The Post from his hospital bed, Douho wondered why the police allowed his colleagues to pass but halted him. 

"None of the police officers signalled to me that I should halt for any control. All of a sudden, I discovered I was already on the spikes after my front tyre punctured. I only discovered myself in the gutter with blood covering my face, with broken arms and limbs. I lay there helpless until my colleagues, who were ahead of me, realised that I was not following and that is how they rushed back to rescue me," Douho recounted.

When news of Douho's accident spread, a handful of bendskins went to the GMI seeking an explanation. The police did not offer any explanation. Instead, they impounded their (benskins') bikes.

At about 10 am on Tuesday, the bendskins decided to table their complaint with the Mezam SDO. His Assistant, Simon Sombe, would try in vain to calm the angry bendskins who descended on the GMI Police Station followed by a crowd. At the police station, the bendskins demanded for an immediate solution.

According to one of their spokespersons, Johnson Ndifor, they wanted the Administration to order for the release of all impounded motorcycles and sanction the police who caused Douho's accident.

Before the Administration and the GMI officers could concert on what to do, a pick-up, returning policemen to the station, drove into the crowd and the already high-strung bendskins began throwing stones at them.

The police replied with tear gas and live bullets for close to four hours. The exchange left two dead - 23-year-old Simon Ambe Nche, a bendskin who hailed from Bafut and one Patrick Che, 24 years old, who was not a bendskin. Che had alighted from a taxi around the GMI.

As hundreds of bendskins paraded Ambe's corpse from the hospital to the GMI, the police opened fire once more. A bullet caught Che in the head. Half an hour later, he was dead.
Esther Swirri, 35, a petty trader (buyam sellam) from Alakuma was trampled on during the stampede. When she finally got up from the ground, police pounced on her and gave her a hard beating which left her with abdominal pains and a splitting headache.

When The Post met Swirri at the Bamenda General Hospital Ward "E" Bed 26, where she is receiving treatment, she had this to recount: "I was from hospital to pick my father-in-law's laboratory results and I saw people running. That is how I found myself on the ground.

As I got up with pains all over my body, I only discovered police beating me with their canes…" Another victim, Leonard Fongwa, 20, from Bamendankwe, lying in Ward "D" of the Bamenda Provincial Hospital, showed The Post his left leg ridden with bullets. Another benskin, Albert Fon, received bullets in the left arm. Several others are receiving treatment in other hospitals in town.

Human Rights Groups React

Reacting to the killings, the President of the Union of Human Rights Organisation, UNOWHURO, Joseph Chongsi Ayeah, said it was a continuation of impunity that took place at the University of Buea where students were shot at and some killed for a just cause. Recently, he continued, in Abong Mbang, some people lost their lives for protesting against intermittent power cuts.

He recalled that the Northwest Governor, Koumpa Issa, had instructed GMI authorities to negotiate with the protestors but they instead opened fire at them."There is a general breakdown of law and order in Cameroon. Two months ago, the Prime Minister gave instructions on the Sabga Lamido crisis, which was snubbed by the Mezam Administration," Chongsi said.

He advised the families of the victims to forward their complaints to his organisation for a follow-up so that the perpetrators of the crime are punished.For his part, Northwest representative at the National Commission for Human Rights and Freedoms, Nelson Ndi, condemned the use of live bullets on protestors. He said such a reaction from the police fuelled rather than stopped the demonstration.

Comments

[Neba Funiba]

The fire on the mountain keeps smoldering and will soon reach ignition point. When John Kohtem was killed and the population got out for massive demonstrations, Fru Ndi was promised that demonstrations be called off because government was forming a commission of inquiry to get to the bottom of the killing. Well, we all know what happened. When students were shot and killed at UB two years in a row, promises were made to get to the bottom of what happened. Well, we all know what happened after. People keep falling for the same boomerang.

[red flag]

some one advise fru ni that, bamenda people,just as buea people, kumba people,
mamafe people, bakassi people are not camerouese(french) but southern cameroonians(english) and that this sdo, gmi police gouverneur are in a foreign country which they are illegally admistrating, that they have to leave. and that fru ndi must
gather southern cameroonians to set up an
all army and police on our soil to defend and protect from the french negroes.

[Ndiks]

The butchering of the pleb by well groomed alien goons keeps pace unabated.Again,lives have been extinguished by these trigger-happy soldiers and just how much more lives will be extinguished before long sought freedom and or justice will be wrested from these uholy goons?Buea still very freshed in the mind,just a few months later,the murderous thugs proved restless.We aren´t yet galvanized by this combo of political;economic,military long standing provocation-cum aggression.Is the end of this military fad in sight?The UN,HRW,EU, and those so called Human Rights tutors are mugwump.This case does not deserve their condemnation.The junta is an imperial/Neo-liberal bidder.Unlike Zim,Burma,.The tacitly friendly Junta can get away with murder and be exempted from censure.It couldn´t be more crystal.We have to kibosh this anomaly by our own bootsraps and concertation of efforts."Governor promised that a Commission of Inquiry would immediately go to work".A colonial vice roy wants to probe himself and assist the victims.Sounds like Charles de Gaulle will probe himself and his crime of a colonial syndycate for possible punishment?Drivel! Should we continue to brook this ever ticking evil on our soil?How much more? God bless the Deaths!!!

[red flag]

the truth of the matter is , no people can be ruled upon not unless, they agree to be ruled, the population of southern cameroonians is 7m, the population of (french-negroide, camerounese army, gerdames.
police is 100, 000 .occupying southern cameroons. fact is, there is petrol every where, there is dynamite every where, there
is amonia nitrate every where, , when are these young people make life difficult for these gouverneurs, prefets and brigard comanders, as well as alliance francais in buea and bamenda, sonara etc
police vehicles and station, if all their vehicles are set ablaze with petrol at night, as well as their stations they wont have ant thing to use for their killing
spree. that would have save atleast two or three of our brothers life. if sonara is set ablaze by dynamite , then all these frenc-negroide foreigner would pack and go home, for there wont be any thing for them to hang on to. if koumpssa , louis eyay and allare targeted and shot. then any other
colonial envoy from the metropole france. will think twice before caming to our land. we are shot at random by these armed french-negroes because we are not armed and we never retaliate. we make ourselves bananas, soo them monkey eat us.
this must stop. even fru ndi or inoi must be targeted if there dont see the urgency to setup a southern cameroons all armmy for our independence and freedom, which is our ntural rights.

[simplice]

"the truth of the matter is , no people can be ruled upon not unless, they agree to be ruled, the population of southern cameroonians is 7m, the population of (french-negroide, camerounese army, gerdames.
police is 100, 000 " by Red Flag

Where is the statistics from?. Please tell us before we make some negative judgement.
Please I'll equally like to know if you're in Cameroon or abroad;for your second comment is one that incites voilence as means of liberation. Have you forgotten what the SCNC motto stands for?. But before I lampoon you, tell me where you're based.

[Fon]

The GMI police boss, Blaise Mbincho cannot be calling for forgiveness and at the same time telling blatant lies: "It wasn't deliberate. They were stray bullets that caught the victims."
Can someone out there help me and explain how the bullets in this heinous act can be qualified as stray bullets?

I join the Northwest representative at the National Commission for Human Rights and Freedoms, Nelson Ndi, to condemn the use of live bullets on unarmed protestors.

[red flag]

SIMPLIE
VIOLENCE IS SELF DEFENSE IS LEGAL EVEN AT THE UN, SOO, TO ARM YOUR SELF, IN SELF DEFENSE IS WHAT I AM CALLING AND TO PRE-EMPT, VIOLENCE BY SHOOTING THESE SDO
AND POLICE, AN GOUVERNEURS IS WHAT I AM CALLING, I BELIEVE IF IT WAS US OCCUPYING THEIR LAND AND KILLING THEM . SURELY THEY WOULDNT WAIT A SECOND TO SHOOT EVERY ONE. SOO WHY IS IT DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO GRASP?
WAIT WHEN YOUR OWN MOTHER IS SHOT, BY THE FRENCH -NEGROES POLICEMEN, BEFORE YOUR EYES
AND YOU ONT RETALITATE? THIS SEND A WRONG SIGNAL TO THE REST . THAT ITS OK FOR THEM TO KILL US AN GO FREE. I DONT AND WONT BUY THAT.

[UnitedStatesofAfrica]

This is sad to read. It looks like a still scene from the tragic episode in Rwanda. I hope the proletariat realizes that the power is in them and not in that lawless blood-thirsty vampire in Etoudi. We have the power and we should determine how we want to live our lives.
I am also glad that Fru is standing up and openly confronting these CPDM Biya lass-lickers. We need more of this. Less press conferences with Dr. Elizabeth Tamajong and more SDF action. If the SDF wants to win the support of us again, they need to show us that they can answer fire with fire.

Power to the people
power to the proletariat
power to the opposition
AFRICA MUST UNITE!!!

[Mburlih]

Mr Police commissioner what was the target of your stray bullets before they missed to kill our young men.Look at Che, an able bodied young man who was just trying to earn a living but is now exposed here as a corpse and imagine that he was your son!
Mr. SDO it is very reliably alleged that you could not even express yourself in English before the crowd of the angry youths.You and all others like you have no place in the Southern Cameroons.
Fru Ndi should give up trying to change the unchangeable and join the restoration of Independence train that is slowly but surely riding into station.
Incidentally,UnitedStatesOfAfrica seems to have had an overnight repentance from his sins on the independence issue.Hope it lasts!

[Galabe]

Mr. red flag,
"fru ndi must gather southern cameroonians to set up an all army and police on our soil to defend and protect from the french negroes"

Must it only be Fru Ndi who should gather southern cameroonians? Why cant you do it yourself. You can also do something. Fru Ndi is not a super human being. The onlything some of you guys are capable of doing for southern cameroonians is to hide in your one room apartments in Europe and criticised people on the internet. You want Fru Ndi to gather people, later you will accused him of betraying the Southern Cameroonians. You should do something too so that others can also write about you.