By Azore Opio
A gang of thieves have hit Buea municipality in recent weeks, stealing car parts such as headlamps, tail lights, radiators and grills, radio hi-fis and driving mirrors.
More than a dozen cases have been recorded across the municipality from the Molyko neighbourhood, cutting across Bonduma, Sand Pit, Great Soppo right up to Bokwaongo at the foot of the mountain.
In Sand Pit, Justice Eni Mokube of Buea Court of Appeal woke up in the morning of Saturday, July 26, to find his car gaping without headlamps and tail lights, radiator and radiator grill. The car radio was also missing.
According to the magistrate, the vandals must have struck at around 4 am, in total darkness as there was a blackout and a storm was threatening to descend upon the town.He believes they must have scaled the perimeter wall to access the car as the gate was locked for the night.
Earlier in the week, a car owner resident in Small Soppo behind Mermoz Hotel also woke up to find that the head lamps and tail lights of his car were missing.It was the same case at the Munangai's Quarters in Bokwaongo where the thieves ripped parts from five cars.
It should be noted that Munangai's Quarters has a perimeter fence and is bordered on the western side by residential houses. It is also equipped with a gate and security guards -day and night.
It seems the thieves have discovered certain high priced parts that can be stolen right from the Toyota Carina III and Toyota Corolla 100 models.When contacted, the Buea police department said it was aware of the wave of the motor parts theft.
A police commissioner said most of the thieves come from places like Kumba, operate in Buea by night, dispose of their loot in Douala and go back to base.It is suspected that some motor vehicle mechanics could be local accomplices in the racket, because the jobs done are neatly, expertly and rapidly.
As yet, none of the thieves has been caught. But the commissioner said the police are working towards apprehending them.Buea has been intermittently hit by banditry acts. It would be recalled that in mid-2006, the university town was on tenterhooks when night marauders went out mugging and cutting people with machetes.
One Pius Agbor Tambe, then Principal of GSS Mudeka, fell victim to the machete bandits while returning from a party in Tiko. The bandits waylaid him, seized his hands and began hacking his head.
The bandits only fled when the locals came to his rescue. This case and many others were the order of the day then.Some taxi drivers were blamed for conniving with the bandits.
Said a taxi driver: "There are some taxi drivers who drive late in the
night and others who come out of Buea to perpetrate the crimes and take
off."
The then Buea Divisional Officer, DO, Azia Bokadze, affirmed that there was rising insecurity.
"There is a rising atmosphere of insecurity, panic and everybody in
Buea is really disturbed and worried…" he had said (The Post of Friday,
June 23, 2006).
Following these attacks, the administration intensified night patrols and control posts. The 1st Company Commander of the Buea Police Mobile Wing, GMI, Jacques-Roger Mefiri, would tell a local newspaper that "the population needs to collaborate with the police and could even call 33 32 23 06 to inform us of any suspected persons."
That spate of banditry phased out but it was soon replaced by air time scam, which the police cracked.And now, motor parts theft has come alongside Internet scamming involving mainly the University of Buea students who split their time between lectures and scamming in cybercafés.
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