Divided we fall:

Bangantes in K’ba agree to disunite

By Johnson Batuo in Kumba

Members of the Bangante Community in Kumba on Monday 8 August 2016 stormed the gendarmerie post in Kosala to obtain the release of some of their members detained by the gendarmes, The Median has gathered.

                The detained members of KumbaBangante family meeting were on the orders of the Divisional Officer of Kumba II arrested while attending their family meeting on Sunday 7 August, we learned.

                The reason for the arrest was linked with a leadership tussle between the incumbent president of the meeting and his predecessor Mbachu Jacob Kay, who is also Meme IB CPDM section president.

                On Sunday 31st July, the Kumba II DO allegedly went to the Bangante Family meeting in Kumba II and suspended six of its members said to be loyal to the incumbent president whose names this reporter was unable to obtain by press time.

                We further gathered that the crime of these persons is that the incumbent president allegedly granted interviews to the press at a time the meeting was in dire need of reconciliation.  The Median gathered that the DO was unable to produce a copy of the newspaper(s) that carried the interview.

                On the contrary, the former president Mbachu Jacob Kay on Wednesday, 22 June 2016 granted press interviews on the crises of the Bangante meeting to six journalists who visited him at his preventive street residence.

                At the time of going to press, The Median gathered that the detained KumbaBangante family meeting members were released on Tuesday 9 August on the orders of the Meme State counsel.