By Bakah Derick
Blogger@hilltopvoices
John Fru Ndi the
Chairman of Cameroon’s most populous opposition party The Social Democratic
Front SDF last August 22 staged a protest on the gateway to Bamenda. According
to the Chairman, he was protesting in Matazem following the bad state of the
road between Bafoussam and Bamenda that blocked traffic flow for almost a day. After
visiting the bad area between Babajou and Mbouda, the SDF Chairman returned to the Matezem toll gate to order all toll gate ticket sellers out of the place and to stop selling
tickets until the road is repaired and before he arrived the toll gate was locked.
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| SDF Chairman in Matazem. Photo by Ojong Stephen |
The SDF party head
argued that it is unlawful to collect money from road users when the roads very
bad as is the case now.
John Fru Ndi’s protest
comes after travel agency owners in Bamenda met in a crisis meeting with the
Regional Governor Adolph Lele L’afrique on the day the traffic was blocked by
the bad roads and said they were not going to pay toll gate charges anymore. They
had earlier threatened to stop transportation until the road was repaired but
pleas by the governor ended with the refusal to pay the toll gate charges.
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| State of the road. Photo by Ojong Stephen |
Since the August 22,
2015 protest by the chairman, the collections of toll gate charges have been
stopped while efforts are underway to get the very bad road passable.
It is the second protest in less than two weeks for the Chairman with the first being against the non respect of land tenure laws by Fokou enterprise ongoing in Mile Four Nkwen.
It is the second protest in less than two weeks for the Chairman with the first being against the non respect of land tenure laws by Fokou enterprise ongoing in Mile Four Nkwen.
Travelling from any part
of Cameroon to Bamenda has remained a major challenge.