Kumba-Mamfe road:

Bakossi chiefs invoke witchcraft to call Chinese contractors to order

By Doh Bertrand Nua in Kumba

Bakossi chiefs say ‘stop’ to Chinese engineers

The chiefs of some 14 villages of Western Bakossi in Kupe Muanenguba division have mounted road blocks and sprinkled deadly concoctions on vehicles and caterpillars used by Chinese contractors building the Kumba-Mamfe road. The chiefs mounted the road blocks to put an end to what they consider as the uncontrolled and illegal excavation of mud along the Konye-Nyandong stretch by the Chinese engineers.

                The protest action carried out on 26 September saw the chiefs and their subjects come out en-masse to stop construction works pending concrete negotiations with the Chinese company and the local administration.

                According to the president of the Western Bakossi chief’s conference, Chief Ngalame Alphonse Ebong, the Chinese contractors have since been excavating mud from an area along the Konye-Nyandong stretch with the excuse that they had negotiated and obtained authorization to use the said the land where the excavation is been done.

                But Chief Ngalame at once noted that they were not privy to any such transaction that gave the Chinese contractors authority over the said parcel of land. Besides, Chief Ngalame noted further that the activities of the Chinese were in total disregard for the natives of the area whose road the Chinese were damaging and rendering almost impassible. He said attempts by the chiefs to meet and discuss the issue with the contractors met with very adamant and recalcitrant Chinese engineers.

                In a letter that the chiefs addressed to the DO of Konye on 25 May and copies sent to the Mayor of Konye, they expressed worries about the manner in which the Chinese Company was going about the excavation of mud in their localities. They complained that the excavation has created very deep valleys barely less than 150 metres from the road passing near the Konye market and leading to Bakole village on the Konye-Nyandong highway. They said the dangerous spots created on the road only put the lives of their subjects who ply the road in jeopardy.

They complained that the activities of the Chinese had caused them to abandon the road that they were previously using and they are now forced to use a diverted path which has already registered three accidents in just several months.

                The chiefs explained that their protest action was simply to prove their anger and disappointment to the Chinese contractors and to get the latter to see the need to talk with them so that immediate solution could be sought to the very vexing issue.

                “We cannot sit and watch how the Chinese are putting the lives of our subjects at risk,” said the president of the Western Bakossi Chiefs’ Conference, Chief Ngalame Alphonse.

                For his part, the chief of Ebako Bajo village, HRH Enone, simply warned that doom awaits any Chinese who attempts to go ahead with works on the road or to use any of the vehicles and machines that have been sprinkled with the concoctions jointly prepared by ‘jazz men’ from the 14 villages of Western Bakossi. He said the Chinese must first appease the chiefs if they must go ahead with any construction work on the site.