Never before have voices been heard so laud in
the city of Bamenda over land issues relating Nkwen, the Bamenda City Council
BCC and Bamendakwe. The land in question is located along the new road up station
from mile two Nkwen. With the crisis taking off from the demolition of a house by
the BCC for reasons of non-conformity with building permit regulations in the
city (mandatory presentation of a land tittle) resulting to a street protest by
over a hundred placards carrying youths from Nkwen then a media epistolary
warfare between the Fon of Nkwen HRM Fon Azehfor III (claiming rights to the
land as property of the Nkwen people) and the Government Delegate to the BCC Ndumu
Vincent Nji (accused of attributing the said piece of land to his village
Bamendakwe.) . Though strong and accusative as their words sound, one thing that
remains unique to all is that the people of Nkwen and those of Bamendakwe just
like the Fon of Nkwen and the City Delegate share ancestral and historical
relationships.
Oral History has it that the people of
Bamendakwe earlier settled in a quarter called Mendah in Nkwen. Because of
their predominant activity as blacksmiths, they had to move up the hills of
Bamenda present day Bamendakwe so as to make use of wood which has made the
village very well known as supplier of charcoal. Until April of 2007 when a
presidential decree created the Bamenda I, II and III subdivisions, very little
was talked about the boundaries.
On the eve of the 2013 Municipal and
Legislative Elections, a crisis emanated from an attempt by the Bamenda I Elections
Cameroon ELECAM branch office to register voters in a border quarter which the
people of Bamendakwe call Ntenefor while those of Nkwen call Sisia IV. Attempts
by the people of Bamendakwe to install a Quarter Head around the same area meet
unprecedented resistance from the people of Nkwen with a canopy mounted for that
purpose destroyed and almost resulting in an open human confrontation. It took
the then Divisional Officers DO for Bamenda I Vianguelle, Bamenda III Takang
Walter and the Mayor for Bamenda III Sub divisional Council Fongu Cletus to the
site to calm the situation. Elections however took place in the area in
September 2013 with results from these areas recorded as Bamenda III with the Councilor
seat given to the Bamenda II and III Sub divisional councils.
In a bid to curb the rising tensions over
boundary issues between Nkwen in Bamenda III and Bamendakwe being Bamenda I, Nguelle
Nguelle Felix the Senior Divisional Officer SDO for Mezam at the time on the
24, April 2014 placed an administrative injunction order on “SISIA III and
IV/Nyi-Ntenefor I & II Lower Achichem” prohibiting all forms of trespass
and investments on the said places under dispute. Section IV of the said order however
exempted “land owners with a land certificate and building permit issued by the
Bamenda City Council.”
This and
a few other reasons necessitated a two day visit by the Director of Territorial
Organisation in the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation
in June 2015 with the objective to determine the boundary limits between
Bamenda I, II and III. In the process of establishing this limits, a proposal
by the Government Delegate of the BCC suggested that Bamenda I sub division
externs down town including parts of areas like Old Town (named Ntambag by the
Mankon people) Sisia IV (Ntenefor according to Bamendakwe) and Bayelle (Achichem
named by Bamendakwe). This suggestion was however not received lightly by the
Paramount Fon of Nkwen and His Colleague of Mankon with both leaders saying
that there is no way they will allow their land to be ceded to Bamendakwe or
Bamenda I. So far the final limits have not been made public by the National
Commission charged with the regulation of administrative boundaries and territorial
units despite the submission of the required documentation by the SDO for Mezam
produced in tandem with the Divisional delegation for State property, Survey
and land tenure.
This work is done mindful of a correspondence
from the Minister of State property, Survey and Land Tenure Jacqueline Koung a
Bessike on the 24 July 2012 referring to a Prime Ministerial Order of the 21
March 2012 incorporating five hectares in Bamenda for the construction of 50
low cost houses and eventual compensation of the victims whose property would
be destroyed.
Though the site in Bamenda is not
specifically mention in the correspondence and the Prime Ministerial Order,
this investigation however stumbled on the list of those compensated after the
Bayelle/Achichem area was chosen.
North West Regional Delegate for Housing and
Urban Development Akechui Thomas Tamukum through the Service of Local Partnership
and planning then went on to secure the land for the state. The houses have
been constructed but the land dispute is not solved around the Bayelle/Achichem
area as over a hundred youths from Nkwen staged a protest last January 3
accusing the Government Delegate to the BCC of trying to seize part of their land.
According to the youths and corroborated by their
Fon, the said land is community land which the Fon is custodian. The protest
with placards they say was because the BCC had started demolishing the house of
one Atanga Collins on the said piece of land. According to Atanga Collins, the land
on which he is building was given to him by the Fon of Nkwen. The Fon admits he made the donation because the
property belongs to the Nkwen community with him as custodian and he can give
to anyone of his children in need of land.
As to why demolish the said house the Director
of Urban Development at the BCC tells this reporter that “this man has
submitted a document requesting a building permit but we discovered the file
was incomplete. He does not have a land tittle so he cannot just go ahead to
build…..the law will have to take its course.”
On his part the Government Delegate said “I have
been accused wrongly of discriminating in issuing out building permit. The first
thing about the issuing of building permit is that you must show proof of ownership
of that piece of land. And that particular area even has an administrative
injunction dating back as about three years…… as far as I am concerned as a
Government Delegate nobody can put up a building without a building permit. Somebody
who starts putting up such a building is wasting his resources.”
The Nkwen people and their Fon have rejected
the City Council position saying that the government delegate acted that way because
he says that the house is being constructed on Bamendakwe land. The Government
Delegate has rejected such claims saying “I have nothing to do with land
issues. If he has problems with land he should meet the Fon of Bamendakwe or
the Administration or the people of the land. I have nothing to do with land
insofar as the two Fondoms are concern. It is an aberration for the Fon of
Nkwen to be mixing me with land issues.”
The Fon of Bamendakwe has not however make a
public statement on the issue but the Fon of Nkwen told the Independent Observer
that “be informed that I was called up recently by the State Counsel of Mezam
on this issue where some elites of Bamendakwe complained that I am claiming a
portion of their land. When I presented myself before the state Counsel with
genuine documents to support my claim, the complainants disappeared into thin
air.”
Several land certificates have also emerged
on the piece of land under dispute bearing Bamenda I Subdivision a situation
the Fon of Nkwen now questions. “Take note that some four people have showed up
with four different land titles on the same piece of land. Who are these
people? When did they acquire these land tittles and the names are bearing
Bamenda I Sub division which cannot be imposed on the territory of Bamenda III
Sub division?”
As it is now, the Fon of Nkwen maintains that
he stands for “peaceful coexistence between the two villages.” Heis however
challenging “anyone who could disprove me the Fon of Nkwen that the disputed
area belongs to Bamendakwe and not Nkwen; let the person go ahead and do so. I have
all the documented proves and I am waiting for anyone who can challenge them.”
The Government Delegate however thinks that the
Fon should concentrate on more serious issues and stop fighting over land because
that fight will take him nowhere. “Let him keep me out of that fight. I am a
Government Delegate; I don’t belong to any land consultative board. If he wants
to attack me as an individual, over my own land, it is a fair fight.”