By Cynthia Bih
After haven been missing for over a month, the corpse of Tebeck Martin, a resident of Akwena II quarter in Bamendakwe, Bamenda I sub division was finally found in a bush in Banche, another quarter in Bamendankwe village last Friday August 4, 2023. About six bullet shells were found around his already decomposed body making the suspicion of death by bullet wounds his most probable cause of death.
Martin who was in his 70s is uncle to Mbah Tebeck Smauel, husband to popular human rights activists Adah Mbah who led the women protests for peace and justice in Bamenda for over a year till several threats from both parties in the armed conflict presently rocking the North West and South West regions of Cameroon caused she and her fellow women leaders to pipe down and go silent while some simply went into hiding due to numerous threats.
Close family sources revealed that the threats had become so serious such that other extended family members who were known to be close to either Adah Mbah or her husband began being targeted. “For a while my uncle complained to some of us in the family that he was receiving calls from unknown numbers asking for uncle Mbah Smauel and his wife aunty Adah. He said the callers kept telling him that aunty Adah and her husband cannot hide forever.” The late Tebeck Martin’s niece said.
“The threats finally stopped coming for a while and I am sure he thought all was okay until he suddenly disappeared and we looked for him for over a month and only found his already decomposed corpse last weekend in a bush in Banche village” his niece added.
“We cannot say who exactly wanted him dead or wants my Uncle and wife dead or if this death is linked to aunty Adah Mbah’s activities but we know that this crisis has become so deadly that so many people are using it to settle scores on both ends. We only pray that the crisis comes to and end soonest so that we can all go back to our normal way of life.” She ended.
Adah Mbah was arrested in links to her human rights activities in November of 2022 and spent a little over a week in a detention and torture cell. She has since then been a little off the scene as more and more activists are targeted by both the government and armed groups while accusing them of either collaborating with one party or the other.
Family members or close relations sometimes get to pay the price for the target like in the case of Kongnso Antoinette, the former girlfriend of famous General No Pity, a NSAGs warlord who has caused untold pain to the Cameroonian military. To get at him, government decided to go after his family and former girlfriend who was pregnant. She spent over a year in detention and gave birth in prison.