By DANIELA NEBA NGUM
The mortal remains of the late Mayor of Ekondo Titi Council in Ndian Division, Alfred Mbongo Ngoe was refused entrance and burial rites in his homeland by some unidentified gunmen believed to be separatist fighters.
According to family sources, the wife and daughter of late mayor were kidnapped by some gunmen on Thursday, March 15. The gunmen later released them that same night after allegedly receiving a ransom of FCFA 700,000 from the family.
Our source further narrates that information equally reached the family from unknown destination asking the family to let the Mayor be buried by the gunmen or his corpse would not be allowed access to the division.
Another version holds that since the March 8 and 9 temporary ban on the circulation of motorbikes in some areas of the Southwest Region by the Minister of Territorial Administration, some group of armed men have also vowed that no vehicle will make use of the Kumba-Ekondo Titi stretch of road.
Cases have been reported of drivers and their passengers who were well tortured for defying their orders. In some cases personal items such as mobile phones of both drivers and travelers are seized.
A truck driver was also kidnapped while transporting bags of rice from Kumba to Ekondo-Titi. Report says before the military could intervene the gunmen had already transported a greater portion of the rice.
Cases have been reported of deceased families who were faced with difficulties transporting their corpses from their villages to the mortuary.
The Late Mayor’s family finally decided bury him at his farmland at Kumba III instead of Bisoro Balue in Ndian Division as initially planned.
Late Mayor Alfred Mbongo Ngoe was born on December 15, 1964 at Bisoro Balue. He served the Ekondo-Titi Council for three mandates as a councilor (2002-2018), elected First Deputy Mayor (2007-2013) and finally elected as Mayor in 2013. He held the post till his demise on February 2, 2018. He leaves behind a wife, Mrs. Sabina Mbongo, five children, two grandchildren, relatives and sympathizers to mourn him.