Bafut Council: motor bikes prohibited for an indefinite period

The decision is from the governor of the North West region, Adolphe Lele L’Afrique.

The prohibition of commercial and non commercial motor bikes from circulating in the Bafut Council in the Bafut Sub Division of the North West Region is a security measure armed at containing violence that is gaining grounds in the region as a result of the ongoing Anglophone Crisis.

Governor Lele L’Afrique took the decision days after some schools in the municipality were attacked by unknown armed men who tried to burn down the schools, forced students out, and press for school shut down.

In one of the schools precisely Government High School, GHS Bafut located at Mankaha, the armed men arrived there on Thursday night breaking Friday May 11, 2018 threatening the night watch man who fled for his life. They then went on to set the schools service car on fire and part of the buildings before taking off.

The flames were later on quenched by the locals but not before it has consumed part of the car and the buildings.

A warning note was discovered on the school campus indicating that the school should be shut down else they shall return, meanwhile at the entrance they men wrote on one of the walls “no school in Amba”

These indications are what pushed the population and administrative authorities to believe that the men were assailants fighting for the separation of Cameroon.

Besides attacking GHS Bafut they went on to attack another school, GHS Mambuh still in the Bafut municipality forcing students to flee and the school to shut down immediately.

In retaliation, security forces are reported to have entered the town of Bafut to contain the situation and they are alleged to have burnt down commercial motor bikes in a popular junction in the town causing tension and panic among the population.

One person whose name we did not get is reported to have lost his life as a result of these uprising in the Bafut Municipality. He was hot in Agyiaty, a locality in the Bafut Sub Division

Informed of the incident and given that most of the attacks are orchestrated with the use of motor bikes, the governor of the region then took the firm decision to suspend the activities of all motor bikes in the town, with the exception of administrative bikes and bikes used for security operations by security forces and those with special permits to circulate.

The governor has warned that defaulters would be prosecuted according to the law and regulations in force. He has however instructed the senior Divisional Officer for Mezam, Songa Pierre Rene and other senior administrative authorities in the division including the forces of law and order to control the strict implementation of the measure.

The crisis in Bafut Municipality has pushed other schools to close down like Presbyterian Secondary School, PSS Bafut. A decision that has caused the minister of Secondary Education, Nalova Lyongha to call to the attention of school authorities that the official closing date for the 2017/2018 academic year if fixed for Friday June 8 2018.

All attempts to reach the Mayor of the Bafut Council, Mayor Ngwasoh Abel Langsi were to no avail.

We remember that the parliamentarian for Tubah-Bafut constituency Hon. Wilfred Fusi Naamukong last year at the National Assembly told the house that the people of Bafut live in fear and panic following the way the Anglophone Crisis is been handled and that parents are afraid to send their children to school for fear of the unknown.