By Talla Aghaa Christopher
The Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, for Meme Division, Ntou’ou Ndong Chamberlain last Saturday September 15, 2018 accompanied by his close collaborators and heavily armed security officials undertook an impromptu visit to travelling agencies in Kumba.
The visit came at the backdrop of recent mass exodus of denizens of the division to what the concern individuals and families call “safer zones” out of the South West Region for fear of the unknown.
For the past weeks, Kumba witnessed a mass exodus of persons from Kumba in alarming proportions. The various travelling agencies in Kumba had been inundated by passengers and entire household belongings like pots, beds, chairs, electronics, kitchen utensils and many more.
The denizens were fleeing from Kumba now, not the bushes as was the case before. They were responding to calls by separatist fighters that the days ahead will be bloody and circulations in and out of Kumba will be halted and ghost towns otherwise known as “kontri sunday” will move from the traditional Mondays to the entire period from September 25, 2018, to October 10.
In order to reassure the population of their security and safety, the Meme Chief Executive Officer, informed of the situation therefore took upon himself as the father of Division to meet the fleeing population at the various agencies. He had on his lips one important message at the various agencies visited – that of love and confidence for the security forces who he said are there to protect the population.
The SDO called on those who had already paid their fares to go back to their various houses and have confidence in the State machinery put in place to guarantee their security.
At the popular travelling agency besides the Kumba BICEC junction, the SDO was taken aback by the number of passengers and vehicles that were already set to leave the Division. He struggled to convince some of the passengers to collect their transport fares and return home.