Hero abroad, villain at home

Late chief Ayamba Ette Otun

The state burial that members of the SCNC had planned to give to their emblematic National Chairman HRH chief Ayamba Ette Otun in Mamfe did not take place after all. An atmosphere of fear, tension and apprehension gripped the funeral arena on Friday 24 July and Saturday 25 July 2014 respectively. This was because a heavy deployment of mixed contingents of government troops comprising the BIR, Gendarmes and police, continued parading the streets intimidating enthusiastic SCNC militants and other mourners who would have thronged the funeral venue.
    Even the corpse removal that was initially planned for Friday 25 July2014, could not take place because trigger-happy soldiers, armed to the teeth, surrounded the Mamfe mortuary where the remains of Chief Ayamba had been lying for several weeks. The troops prevented even family members from coming close to the mortuary. They controlled the identities and movements of persons making sure that militants of the SCNC did execute their plan to give chief Ayamba a befitting 'State Burial'. Anyone on sight was closely monitored.

    Family members who had programed and announced the removal of the corpse and wake-keeping for Friday, said they were alarmed when a local radio on Thursday 24 July 2014, read an order signed by the Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu banning all public meetings and processions in the entire Manyu Division beginning from that Thursday.
    As the crowds swooped into Mamfe on Friday morning to assist at the corpse removal, they were taken aback to learn from a family spokesperson that the Divisional Officer for Mamfe Central had asked the family to expressly and publicly denounce the SCNC as pre-condition for the release of the corpse of their late father and grand-father from the mortuary. The DO instructed that the corpse would  leave the Mortuary only on Saturday, to be  buried immediately, and without any funeral ceremonies whatsoever.
    Understandably helpless, the family heeded the DO’s call and consented to wait until Saturday. But the family spokesman said they would not denounce the SCNC because they new nothing about the movement and its activities.
    The Median learnt that as many as 500 SCNC diehards from home and abroad converged on Mamfe, but many of them could not avail themselves at the mortuary or the funeral grounds due to the intimidating presence of the BIR.
    Meanwhile, a press release that was sent to our newsroom said that militants of the SCNC held an emergency meeting in Mamfe and designated Dr. Peter Forchu Chesami as the acting National Chairman of the separatist movement, until another member of the “Southern Zone” (South West Region) is groomed to take over the leadership of the movement.
    When this reporter got Dr. Chesami on the phone, he admitted that he has been bestowed with the task of piloting the affairs of the movement and that he has accepted to take the risk. He said he accepted to take the challenge in honor of Chief Ayamba, whose insistence on peaceful struggle, court action and international recognition rather than open confrontation, won his admiration.
    Chesami said they planned to give Chief Ayamba a befitting State Burial, but the forces of occupation disrupted it. He however believes  that Chief Ayamba has had a philosophical state burial. Dr. Chesami regretted that the beautiful and befitting casket that the SCNC ordered from Nigeria to put their leader in, was blocked at the borders by the authorities. He further informed that all the booklets containing the funeral program and eulogies were also siezed by the security operatives posted at the borders.
    He said that government forces made sure the SCNC flag was never hoisted in Mamfe. “Even the British, UN and UNPO flags and chief Ayamba’s pictures that we distributed to our members were all seized by the forces,” Dr. Chesami said, questioning why the government was so afraid of flags and tracts.
    It should be mentioned that Chief Ayamba was buried in strictly closed and very low profile conditions. The burial took place almost immediately after the body left the mortuary.
    Understandably no elites or chiefs of the South West region were seen at the funeral grounds. Not even Ayah Paul Abine who was popularly tipped to replace the Chief.
    But many hailed SDF chairman John Fru Ndi for postponing a planned meeting of NEC just to enable interested militants of the party to travel to Mamfe for the funeral of one of the greatest martyrs of The Anglophone Struggle.