Tiko Council Session

Mutengene’s big mop market, Tiko & Mutengene parks prioritized
By Sarah Nkongho Ojong in Tiko

Mutengene Big Mop Market with dilapidated sheds

In a bid to foster development of Tiko municipality and enhance the living conditions of the population, the SDO for Fako, Zang III has urged the Mayor, Moukondo Daniel and his collaborators to hasten up with some priority projects within the fast growing municipality. Zang 111 made the recommendation as he presided over an ordinary session of the council, on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 at the Tiko council chambers. The session was aimed principally to examine the council’s 2013 administrative and management accounts.
    The urgent projects identified by the SDO were the construction of befitting stalls at the Mutengene big mop market situated on the Mutengene-Limbe highway, and the construction of befitting motor parks in Mutengene and Tiko to curb clandestine transport.
    The SDO also tasked Mayor Daniel Mukondo Ngande to reinforce the hygiene and sanitation in the municipality by among other things demolishing all temporal structures along the major roads, removing scrap vehicles from the public space, banning petty traders occupying public places and intensifying the keep-Fako-clean campaigns on every 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month.

    It should be pointed out that the Tiko municipality was fast becoming dirty and nauseating recently, especially the satellite town of Mutengene where heaps of garbage had piled up along the road for weeks. The mayor blamed the unfortunate situation on the breakdown of the garbage disposal van of the council but assured that all would be fine sooner than later because the van had been repaired. Mayor Mukondo however used the occasion to draw the attention of the populations of Tiko and Mutengene to stop dumping refuse on the public space.                                                                                                                                                                
    Even though commentators at the council session welcomed the SDO’s recommendations to the Mayor, many however, wondered aloud whether the mayor would be able to construct a befitting motor park along the Tiko-Douala road given that the 1.5 hectares of land that was allocated to the council for the purpose is already occupied illegally by some individuals who claim to have bought it from former mayor, Tita Fombod, who is now allegedly on the run.
    It should be recalled that most of the illegal occupants of the said land defied administrative injunctions by the D.O of Tiko, Patrick Che Ngwashi and went ahead to construct residential homes on the site.
The Median understands that Mayor Moukondo Daniel and his collaborators are virtually helpless in the face of the situation, especially as they risk running into endless legal battles with these supposedly illegal occupants of the council’s land.
    It is worthy of mention that the former mayor of Tiko did not only sell out the said parcel of land to individuals but also delivered the building permits to some of them. All these illegal and preposterous acts of the former mayor only put the sitting mayor in a tight corner. 
    Meanwhile, the SDO has given the mayor a period of 1month to ensure that the illegal occupants demolish their houses and quit the council land. But commentators reckon that even with the SDO’s instruction the Mayor will still not be able to very easily drive away the illegal occupants.
    Apart from the development projects the SDO urged the mayor to carry out, he also tasked the council to see into the exploitation of sand at the Tiko beach and the Moungo River and make sure that the revenue generated from these economic activities are paid into the council coffers.
     Zang III also charged the mayor with ensuring better coordination, liaison and synergy among the council and other public services, and to ensure transparency and prevent misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds by council workers.
    The SDO urged the mayor to work in synergy with the forces of law and order to check rising banditry and criminality especially in Mutengene (Cham).
    Meanwhile the SDO expressed unreserved satisfaction with the mayor for the many projects he has so far completely executed and those still in progress, after only several months of his taking office. Zang 111 applauded the completed works in the health, education, energy, public works and social domains. He exhorted the mayor to do the same with upcoming projects like construction of classrooms at GS Holforth layout, construction of a zoo-technical and veterinary centre in Mutengene, construction of the banquet hall and the security fence round the council chambers.
    On his part, Mayor Mukondo Daniel assured the public that he would deliver on the big mop market on time especially as the sum of 100 million for its construction was available. 
`The statements of account presented by the Mayor during the session showed that the council had an expenditure as at January 2014 of 179,665,319fcfa (25.38% increase), against an income of 112.229.435fcfa (15.12% increase). The increase in expenditure was explained by the many projects carried out in the domains of road maintenance, electricity and water supply, and provision of other social amenities in the municipality.