/By Macdonald Ayang Okumb/
The riotous and violent scenes sparked by rampaging motorbike
riders in Buea on Tuesday 23 June are still very fresh in the minds of some denizens
of the South West Regional capital.
And fears are rife as a source has intimated to us that
the nine arrested persons believed to be among those who fronted the strike action
that hugely paralysed activities in the town that fateful day could possibly be
first victims of the recently instituted law on the suppression of acts of
terrorism. Some
provisions of that law point to disturbance of public order and the disruption
of public activities as acts of terrorism.
Those arrested have since been in custody and are
expected to be brought before the legal department in the days ahead.
It would be recalled that on Wednesday 24 June (one
day after the protest), Buea chiefs, under the banner of the Buea chiefs’
conference, held an unusual emergency meeting which had the bike riders’ strike
action as the main item on its agenda.
During the meeting that was chaired by their
president, His Royal Majesty Chief Johnson Njoke Njombe of Wokaka, the chiefs
called on the administration to severely punish those who perpetrated the strike.
They described the protest as ‘unacceptable’ and an aberration because
according to them, it took a ‘destructive’ dimension.
It’s worthy of note that activities at Buea’s
commercial hub, Mile 17, had virtually come to a standstill that Tuesday 23
June, as a crowd of motorbike riders blocked the main roads (leading to Buea
central town and Muea) in protest over what they said was the Buea mayor’s
‘refusal to release’ their impounded motorbikes against a proposed payment of
impoundment fines.
After failed attempts by the Divisional Officer for
Buea, Paul Kouam Wokam, together with other administrative and security
officials to calm flaring tempers, anti-riot police finally resorted to releasing tear gas to
neutralise and disperse the irate crowd but the protesters replied by throwing
stones and other objects.
The protesting bike riders went ahead to vandalise
billboards, burnt tires on the main road and also reportedly destroyed a
council bus. It’s then that the police successfully made nine arrests.
One day after the strike action, the mayor, Patrick
Ekema Esunge, against whom the bike riders were venting their spleen,
understandably succumbed to the pressure. He quickly issued a communiqué saying
he was ready to let go the hundreds of Motorbikes that he had impounded upon
payment of the impoundment fee of FCFA 25, 000, which he had hitherto allegedly
turned down.
The press release prescribed last Friday 26 June as
deadline for the motorbikes to be claimed, failure of which, he said, they would
be sold by auction. Meanwhile, a meeting which he (Ekema) was expected to have
with Executive members of bike riders’ syndicates within the municipality last
Thursday fell through and was postponed.
Mayor Ekema also stated in the release that in an
effort to find a comprehensive solution to the crisis, he had decided to
“…graciously waive all other penalties associated to the impounded motorbikes
which are statutory based on municipal deliberation no. 10/2014 banning
clandestine transportation and regulating the circulation of commercial
motorbikes within the urban periphery of Buea.” He however pointed out that the
circulatory limits prescribed for motorbikes within the municipality of Buea
remain in force.
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