By Noela EBOB BISONG
The Governor of the South West Region, Bernard Okalia Bilai has said an imminent crackdown on operators and consumers of hard drugs will take centre stage across the region in the days ahead. He was speaking on Thursday, June 20, at the close of the June 2024 session of the Regional Security and Administrative Coordination meeting (CCO/CCA), in Idenau Subdivision.
The Regional Security Coordination meeting had as objective to ameliorate existing synergy between the administration, security forces, municipal authorities, frontline socio-economic actors and other living forces for the better coordination of activities in order to protect and promote the welfare of the South West population.
The meeting principally dwelled on security preoccupations and elaborated strategies wherein the most-appropriate measures were adopted to ensure peace and security and the safety of people and goods in the South West.
In a hard tone, Okalia told journalists that, “We have given instructions especially during this holiday period to protect the youth. We have given specific instructions, we just want the parents to collaborate and the results will be visible in the next two, three weeks. We are going to eradicate that phenomenon of drugs because it is destructive, catastrophic to young people.”
He maintained that hard drugs “is the fuel for terrorists because after consuming such drugs, they become like animals, mad men and have no respect for human life anymore.”
The governor warned that, “Those who are involved in this malpractice should go elsewhere because if they continue to stay here, they will see what will happen”, he promised.
Governor Okalia while maintaining that the security atmosphere in the region has greatly improved said, “Everything is under control in the South West Region. We have the six Senior Divisional Officers and their Divisional Officers effectively working; the technical services, regional delegates, the entire administration is active on the field. Economic and social activities are going on. We can be proud of the fact that concerning the agriculture domain, farmers now enjoy good prices like that of cocoa. Activities in towns like Limbe, Kumba, Mundemba, Mamfe are going on”, he explained.
Okalia said, “The population of Buea has doubled…a prove and sign that life is back to normalcy and we must congratulate the population. The population has understood that they have been misled, manipulated…and they now understand that the only way forward is to be busy with activities.
“We want to assure the population that the administration and forces of law and order are there to accompany them”, he said.
Nonetheless, the South West boss also took time to urge the population not to tolerate terrorists and their activities.
“We must continue to work hard because the terrorists, bandits are still there but they are under high surveillance and we continue to invite the population to collaborate to denounce them…we have to terrorise the terrorists by denouncing them because they are hiding themselves within the population and we should not hesitate…despite their threats, the population should continue to be courageous enough to denounce them.
“If any incident happens around your premises and you cannot denounce the perpetrators, you would be the first suspect”, the Governor warned.
Okalia commended traditional rulers, vigilante groups and others for their collaboration to work towards peace and security.
In her welcome address, Mary Ewunga, 2nd Deputy Mayor of Idenau Council, while representing the Mayor said the Subdivision is currently enjoying relative peace thanks to the administration headed by Governor Bernard Okalia Bilai. She seized the opportunity to decry the deplorable state of a bridge in dire need of reconstruction in the municipality.
During the meeting, presentations came from various Regional heads, including Treasury General, Finance Controller, Health, Agriculture, Public Works, MINEPAT, Customs among others.