Ayah The Official Anathema

Before the Yives declared war on the Olitis, (Hon Ayah's tribe), the Yives had destroyed at least nine Oliti houses. They had also killed over five Olitis and cut off and carried away some of the heads. All reports to the Cameroonian authorities were either simply ignored, or the Oliti complainants were instead arrested, detained and only released upon ransoms being paid to the authorities. Assured of support and encouraged by the Cameroonian administrative authorities, the Yives went on to declare war. The Olitis have today paid dearly for only exercising their right of self-defence.

By Hon. Ayah Paul Abine

Not only did the Government of Cameroon put in place all dirty plans to avail itself of the war it had encouraged and sponsored to implicate Ayah; but today, the Olitis have gone for close to two years as refugees without any single item of relief supplies from the Government.
Many are innocent Oliti children who have died from famine; many innocent women, and men.

As the name Ayah is an official anathema in Cameroon today, the same scenario has been going on at Munyenge for over a year now.
The matter is the estate of Ayah Bernard who died intestate in 2004. Upon his demise, the family designated Echin Augustin as the next-of-kin. He followed due process and obtained letters of administration which enabled him to administer the estate uninterrupted until 2008. One Akawish

(Akawish?) Mary Isheli recently teamed up with the chief of Munyenge and his traditional council, Akawish (Akawish?) Linus (her son), Forcha Stephen, Che Johnson (Martin) alias Army-man, and the head of the chief's militia (styled peacekeeping force), and they are repeatedly intermeddling with the administration of the said estate.

For over a year today, the administrator has been prevented from administering the estate. For that long, the gangsters have invaded the estate and carried away cocoa beans worth millions of francs. For that long, the administrator and his workers have been attacked, maimed, stabbed, shot at and tortured without any authority being bothered to restrain the gangsters. We cite here just some of the attacks of the last three months to illustrate the point?

24 July: Workers of the estate are attacked and wounded in their effort to resist an invasion by some thirty thugs organised by the chief and Akawish Mary Isheli, and commanded by Stephen Forche, Che Martin and the head of the chief's militia. Etonong George is wounded in the head by Stephen Forcha and stabbed in the leg by Akawish Linus. Action awaited.

31 August: Echin Augustine, the administrator of the estate, is attacked in his house with sticks by Stephen Forcha, Akawish Linus, Che Johnson and severely wounded in the head. In pursuance of the order of the chief of Munyenge, he is expelled from Munyenge, and he takes refuge at Muyuka.
1 September: In the furtherance of the chief's order, Etonong George is attacked in his house at night with weapons including a firearm which is shot at him. In attempt to cover up, Akawish Mary is dispatched to Muyuka to allege that Echin Augustin had shot at her son. Gendarmes immediately make an ingress into the court to arrest Echin.

The Muyuka State Counsel intervenes on the ground that Echin had been at Muyuka the previous two days and could not have shot at anyone at Munyenge. Action awaited.

5 October: Etela Pascal is severely beaten by Akawish Linus, Stephen Forcha, Che Johnson and a mob. He loses two teeth from the attack. He is presented to the Muyuka Court of First Instance per sedente curiam still covered with blood. Action awaited.
9 October: Akaya Linus Ondafi is beaten unconscious by Akawish Mary Isheli, Akawish Linus, Stephen Forcha, Che Johnson and four others. His entire body, including the face, is riddled with dozens of traumas. Tyres are put round his neck and petrol and matches are sent for in order to burn him alive. This was upon the return of the chief of Munyenge from the Muyuka Gendarmerie Brigade where, on the orders of the Buea Legion Commander, a statement had been recorded from the chief after one year of his banditry.

The Ayahs had to pay such life-threatening price for the simple recording of a statement from an officially protected gangster. Action awaited.
For the past year, we and our counsel have written a dozen petitions or so to the authorities for action and our protection. Those authorities include the Muyuka Divisional Officer, the Muyuka State Counsel, the Procureur General, the Anti-gang Police, the Special Branch Police, the Human Rights Commission etc, with copies sent to human rights bodies, the South West governor, the Minister of Justice, the Presidency of the Republic etc.
We are still waiting for the first concrete action restraining the gangsters even as we remain under sustained attack.

The Muyuka Divisional Officer, on his part, instead got into negotiation with the gangsters to his personal benefit. Barrister Epie can testify that this was apparent when the two of us met the said Divisional Officer in his office on 17 September 2009. Others are waiting for incentives that we do not have.
As of the time of writing these words, none of the attackers has been arrested; much less detained.
We are not in a position to contradict those who reminded the world only recently that Cameroon is in a state of law. But if so Cameroon is, how else can one describe the repeated attacks on the Ayahs with absolute impunity than that the name Ayah is an official anathema.

Can it be said that Munyenge is a state within the State of Cameroon? If the answer is in the negative, how can any other inference be made, in the face of such official blood-curdling indifference to human suffering, than that the Government of Cameroon has some hidden agenda? Whatever the answer, we the victims feel right to be suspicious that there are official schemes and machinations. And that explains why we cannot even avail ourselves of the right of self-defence.

The unanswered questions now are whether a country in a state of law can connive at, let alone, officially encourage the kind of anarchy reigning at Munyenge, and reigning for so long; and then, what next?