The demand for the local cooking ingredient
palm old produced from palm nuts got to an all-time high level during the early
hours of last Saturday. The ingredient witnessed the strange demand just
shortly after midnight when information went viral that Lake Awing in Awing
Village of Santa Subdivision in Mezam Division of the North West Region had
exploded releasing a toxic substance whose antidote was only palm oil. The
message made rounds via phone calls, SMS and all social media networks.
“SOS The Lake Awing has exploded just like it
happened in Lake Nyos. Please everybody should take red oil eat some and put
some in their nostrils.. Save lives by forwarding this message to your friends
and family members.” One of the messages read
“Good morning everyone urgent urgent urgent!
An explosion has occurred in Lake Awing and there are toxins in the air, look
for palm oil (red) apply on your nostrils and eat some immediately. Please
circulate as fast as possible.” Another read
The response was spontaneous allover Bamenda
and the North West. “I was sleeping when I heard a hard knock on the door, when
I questioned it was a friend who asked if I had some palm oil at home that
there was bad. He said Lake Awing had exploded and that everyone was asked to
eat palm oil and robe some on the nostrils. I had heat my oil container from
where we shared the oil. As were taking our share, my sister also came and we ate
the oil.” Paul a palm oil consumer narrates
This went round really fast but when signs of
it not being true started emerging with people in Awing denying any explosion,
another message like many others quickly appeared with a new narrative. “Please
it’s urgent! A gas substance has been thrown into Lake Awing now please
everybody should take a tea spoon of read oil and rob some on your nose! Please
save lives.” One message read. This was
accompanied by others informing villagers in Awing that their lake had been
poisoned.
This according to other observers was a
follow up to other messages that earlier circulated saying that there was going
to be a chemical spray in Bamenda and should anyone smell something strange you
should quickly ingest palm oil.
Travellers to Bamenda within the early hours
of Saturday are reported to have stooped in Mbouda to buy and consume palm oil for
fear of the famous Lake Awing substance.
At dawn, a picture emerged claiming Fon Fozo
II of Awing had visited the lake in a bid to debunk the information. The untrue
nature of the message was also carried by sources at the North West Governor’s
officer saying that nothing had happened at the Lake.
A message
from the President General of the Ndong Awing Cultural and Development
Association NACDA rejected the Lake explosion with a releasing saying “His
Royal Majesty Fozo II of Awing was at the lake early this morning 19th
May 2018 and found the lake calm. He also talked to those living around the
lake who denied having heard or witnessed any explosion in or around the lake
last night.”
A personal message from the Public Relations
and Communication Officer of the Awing Cultural and Development Association
NACDA described Lake Awing as “the pride of a people. One of the touristic
potentials of Cameroon said “I want to say all the information on social media
is unfounded, irrelevant and don’t in any case resemble our country. The gods
of Mbeuwing are neither at wrath nor seek appeasement. The enemy is always
around the corner but Awing is at a high pedestal and since the crisis broke in
the two English speaking regions, the good God has and continue to stand by
us.”
Ernest Akufor described the information as an
expensive joke which out not to tie with Awing a village a pacesetter
community. “We should all be rest assured calm exist at the lake…. This gives
opportunity for us to be more stronger and shame the devil. This lake is a
source of water supply to the people of Bamenda and beyond. If there was toxin
therein, I don’t think if could have been tapped and supplied for human
consumption.”
The reasons
for the speedy acceptance of the information by the population cannot however
be doubted following the fact that the happenings of 1986 in Lake Nyos in
Menchum Division still remain vivid in many minds in the North West during
which close to 1800 people died and 3500 livestock in nearby towns and villages
suffocated by a large cloud of Carbon dioxide CO2 emitted by the Lake as the
result of an explosion. The little or no attention paid to the victims will
surely not inspire anyone to want to take chances at the mention of any of such
occurrence.
“Following
recent developments and research, if it was to explode, then it won’t be cause
by the accumulation of gases in the CVL as was the case with Lake Nyos back
then. Lake Awing is a volcanic Lake yes but has been experiencing lots of
colour changes due to rock activities in the lake and the region surrounding it
has been experiencing lots of land and mudslides too.” A Geologist in training
tells the Guardian Post.