/By Macdonald Ayang Okumb/
The mayor of Buea is now demonstrating some unusual
rapprochement with motorbike riders in his municipality as he has asserted that
their last week’s violent protest was not of their making but rather the
handiwork of his detractors. To him, the bike riders were simply manipulated.
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| Patrick Ekema |
Speaking to CRTV Mount Cameroon FM Monday 29 June,
Patrick Ekema stated that even the council bus which was alleged to have been
vandalised by the protesting bike riders was rather destroyed by clandestine
transporters who took advantage of the chaos and disarray.
Ekema swore that they had identified the said
individuals and that the council was ready to file legal suits against them in
their individual capacities in the days ahead. “We know all of them and we
shall sue them” Ekema told Mount Cameroon FM’s Midday news.
He also called on the bike riders not to be afraid
to attend the crisis meeting he plans to hold with them. Such a friendly appeal
by the mayor came on the heels of information making rounds that the said
meeting, which was first slated for Thursday 25 June but was postponed, was more
of a ploy to arrest the bike riders’ syndicate Heads.
Mayor Ekema said he has “an open door policy” and
urged the bike riders to meet him anywhere else if they were afraid of coming
to the council premises. “… We don’t have any problem with the bike riders…
about 70% of them are my junior brothers…” Ekema noted.
It would be recalled that nine persons were arrested
as a consequence of the strike action last Tuesday 23 June which hugely paralysed
activities in Buea for much of the day. The strike followed weeks of acrimony
between the council authorities and the Bike riders over impoundment of their commercial
motorbikes.
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