BY ATIA TILARIOUS SAH TERENCE AND MOMA SANDRINE
Cameroon’s fiery opposition leader Ni John Fru Ndi, kidnapped by separatist fighters in Kumbo earlier on Saturday, April 27, 2019 was freed after over half a dozen hours in “detention”.
The National Chairman of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) party was heading a delegation to Kumbo to bury Hon. Banadzem Joseph Lukong, the party’s group leader at the National Assembly when he was taken into “custody” by gunmen.
“From Bamenda to Kumbo, the funeral convoy was subjected to several checks by security forces and separatist fighters. It was at Wainama that the ‘boys’ ordered Fru Ndi to follow them. He resisted and they shot rounds in the air. He then followed them in his car [to their camp]. With him was his driver, and the SDF National Treasurer, Atekwana Joseph Akonji and one other person,” SDF shadow minister of information said Saturday night.
“Information reaching us indicates Fru Ndi was not kidnapped. He was taken for brief discussions as he passed through territories controlled by Ambazonia fighters. He has been released and allowed to continue his journey,” Mark Bareta, a pro-separatist blogger wrote on Facebook a few hours after news of Fru Ndi’s abduction at Wainama went viral.
But Bareta’s post was apparently done when the chairman was still in captivity. It however confirmed that armed men fighting for the independence of a country they call Ambazonia were behind the act.
This has been further confirmed by videos of the opposition leader in the hands of Ambazonia fighters.
Videos show Fru Ndi visibly confident as he responded to questions put to him by his captors who said he had been “arrested and not kidnapped because he is still working for La Republique.”
Jean Robert Wafo, SDF Shadow Minister of Information and Media in a statement said the SDF chieftain was freed at 6:34pm by his captors.
Fru Ndi upon his release went to the graveside of the fallen SDF MP at Njavnyuy, Kumbo. Banadzem had been buried in the absence of his political godfather.
Fru Ndi however organised mass for the deceased party stalwart at his Ntarinkon residence Sunday morning.
Fru Ndi speaks out
In an interview with The Sun Newspaper on Sunday afternoon, John Fru Ndi explains the moments he went through during his journey to Kumbo and with the Amba boys: “The delegation happily left here in a long convoy to go bury a parliamentarian, a fellow member in the party but when we first got to Wainama, the over 200 Amba boys there told us that they were told that we were coming with the army. I said I had never traveled anywhere in this country with the army. So they searched the car and they didn’t see any member of the armed force and we were asked to continue. When we got to Sop, we met other close to 100 armed Amba boys who altered the convoy again and told the other cars to go on but that I should come and talk with them. I happily went to talk to them but when I got there I realized that I had been abducted”.
Fru Ndi was picked up at about 1:00pm and was only released some minutes after 6pm. “For the six and the half/seven hours that I was with them, I am happy I had a wonderful opportunity to talk my mind to them and to give them my own point of view. It was a time of hard and frank talk from the heart and putting the points right. I also told them that I cannot call back my parliamentarians from Yaoundé because I need a forum from where I can talk and the world listens”, he explained.
Fru Ndi continued that he questioned the Amba boys “Today everyone talks of Wirba. Where is he? If he wasn’t in the parliament would he have been able to speak the way he did?. Even if he went up the tallest cola nut tree in Bui and spoke, no one would have heard him. So I need my Senators and MPs in Yaounde so that we can talk”.
Responding to how he was treated while under Amba captivity, he said; “They took me into a hall where they say it’s their meeting hall, there was nothing there. Towards the last moments, they offered that they were going to roast me a chicken to eat when they release me but I saw that the time was far gone for me to sit down and eat the chicken, so I thanked them for that”. Other sources who were present with the chairman say he was bought bananas by the Amba boys and offered some palm wine.
When he was released, Fru Ndi went on to visit the grave side of the late SDF parliamentary group leader and spent the night in Kumbo where he had a heated argument with the SDO for Bui, as he refused to be escorted by any military convoy to Bamenda. “The SDO insisted and brought two armored cars saying one will go ahead of me while another come behind. I refused but he told me he was following instructions and simply doing his job. I told him thank you for doing your job Mr SDO but I have refused I do not want to be escorted by any military”.
Explaining why he chose to turn down all offers by the governor to be escorted by the military to Kumbo, Fru Ndi explained that “I cannot accept to move with a military convoy. If I move with them it means that I have something I fear so I could not accept. For the 28 years I have been in politics, the people have always protected me so there is no reason for me not to trust them now so I still surrender my life to the people.
It is worth mentioning that Constitutional Council Member Prof. Paul Nchuoji Nkwi who accompanied the chairman to lay their fellow party member to rest was in the same car with the chairman at the time of the ‘arrest’. How he escaped being taken along with the Chairman by the Amba boys remains a mystery.
“Inclusive dialogue now!” Akere said, adding that, “the government controls nothing in the North West and South West Regions.”
In a Press release made public on Sunday 28 and signed by 1st National Vice President of the SDF
Hon. Joshua N. Osih, the party stated that “The SDF cannot at this time exactly determine who the authors of the kidnapping are and especially who gave them the orders to undertake their action. The party was, however, surprised to see some hideous agencies announce the release of the National Chairman much earlier, while the chairman and his staff were still in captivity and the negotiations for their release under way. The SDF expresses its total indignation at the behaviour of some personalities in lack of political visibility who, without finding out from the party officials directly concerned, feel obliged to exploit critical and highly sensitive situations to pour themselves into releasing potentially counterproductive statements. Nothing can justify such a quest for sensationalism except if, as we are made to believe, they’re simply part of the sponsors of the nebula that organised the kidnapping. The SDF also reminds Cameroonians that unlike government propaganda, the two regions of the North West and South West are effectively out of government control. The secessionist forces, highway robbers and militias set up by government ministers have taken control of these regions to the dismay of the civilian population who are going through an unbearable drama”.
SDF Senator still in captivity
Jean Robert Wafo, SDF Shadow Minister of Information and Media
told the press that Senator Emilia Nkeze, Vice President of the Senate was still in captivity after she was kidnapped on Friday.
He said news of her liberation went round late on Friday but as at Saturday night, she was still being held in captivity.
We recall that she’s said to have been kidnapped by armed men in front of Fru Ndi’s residence in Ntarinkon as they prepared to receive the remains of Hon. Banadzem for a funeral mass.