Security: Northwest Administration on the Alert

By Bakah Derick

Blogger@hilltopvoices

Anyone who travels to the Northwest Region or the Regional Capital Bamenda to be more specific will certainly not get it easy with the security setup in Abakwa.

From the Matazem gateway into the region it’s just a simple tollgate. As you drive in, there is a heavy deployment of mixed security official just before blue-moon. They are charged with searching both individuals and cars to make sure no one enters the regional capital with a “bomb.”

Meeting during a security meeting in Bamenda early this week chaired by Government a series of measures were announced in a bid to check security treats.

NW Governor Adolph Lele L'Afrique with hand up and Mezam SDO Nguele Nguele 

According to the Regional Governor Adolph Lele L’Afrique many of the measures will assist city dwellers detect potential terrorists or suicide bombers.

This follows a series of meetings and other decisions taken to keep at bay the continuous attack on Cameroonian soil by insurgence.

Being in Bamenda now without valid identification is a risk no mentally upright person should take.  At least over 100 people are already in detention across the region due to irregular conduct or lack of proper identification.

Calls have continued to come from different administrative circles for people to identify all neighbours and report all those with doubtful occupations or activities. Toll free numbers have equally been announced for city dwellers to use.

Some excesses have however been recorded with the police carrying a kid to their headquarters to answer why he was carrying knives after the kid explained that he was sent to file them by the mother who sales Eru just nearby in the Bamenda market. Reports also talk of a near police battalion storming a travel agency just to force a women take off her burqa which has not been banned in the region.

There are also fears as to how effective the plan will be with a corruption tagged police force charged with the implementation. Many say the police is still at a level where they will prefer a FCFA 500 than taking the patients to check a car. Lack or shortage of appropriate checking equipment also seems to be a major pit fall in the security plan.

The Government Delegate to the Bamenda City Council Ndumu Vincent Nji was faulted for not lighting the city. He was however not given the chance to explain himself during the meeting but he used the August 4, 2015 city board meeting to say that lighting will soon be done with the partnership already signed for the rehabilitation.

However what is available should not be taken for granted.