BY ATIA TILARIOUS AZOHNWI
“General Ivo” of the Ambazonia Defence Forces (ADF) has said the struggle for the state of Ambazonia is now losing its focus. In a video that was floated on social media, the so called “general” says he is not happy with the way things are going.
Dressed in a black T-shirt, black cap and dark classes, the young-looking Amba general is sandwiched by two fierce looking gun-toting men as he appears to be reading a statement in pidgin. He is seen sitting in front of what looks like a bookshelf with about five guns displayed on it. The location where the video was recorded or the date when it was released remains in doubt.
In the video, the one who says he is “general of all units of the Ambazonia Defence Forces on ground zero” regret that greed, tribalism, division and hate speech against Bamilekes is destroying what he calls ‘the struggle”.
Hear him: “I have been provoked for too long. I have had to deal with the provocation for too long. I am not supposed to keep something inside of me because I have too much work to work like my other generals and commanders in other areas. I am provoked because of the many camps that have slowed the struggle.
“Tribalism has made it that the true fighters are not recognized. In a village that has two chiefs, we have about four camps. This is because of the rubbish that Chris Anu put on social media calling on Bamilekes to go. I will forever make my speeches and put this point in it. I want to beg the entire population to wipe out what Chris Anu said from their minds. If we wipe it out, then this struggle will not take us a long time
“I know they are hunting me like they would hunt game. But I will always stand to tell my people the truth… Chris Anu told Bamileke’s to leave, leading many lazy youths to create camps. The camps are to take the property of people who have suffered for long. Boys from lazy families, whose fathers and mothers could not work to amass property, carry their laziness or may be a curse, to follow the properties of others. This has made those who were praying for us to now pray against us… some of the things that these fighters do is not fair. That is why they go to battle and fall. I carry “juju” and you carry yours, but you fall in battle and I survive. It is because of all the curses.”
The supposed general boasts that he has been supplying fighters in other areas with groundnuts and sugar cane adding that he hates those who reap from where they did not sow.
He wonders in pidgin why the fighters are now punishing the population. “The camps are such that we are now fighting vehicles, drivers and passengers on the highway. We are not fighting la republique again. We are not against la republique, we are now against our mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers who are helping us in the struggle. We are now fighting against business people. We attack vehicles, remove bags of rice and then set the vehicles ablaze – like one vehicle that was burnt along Muyuka-Kumba Road. That is someone’s FCFA 85 million destroyed when the owner is your own brother. We are now fighting for rice, petrol, money and not against la republique. How do you expect such victims to pray a good prayer?”
It is believed that this video was done to condemn the excesses witnessed recently along the Buea-Kumba highway. Separatists are said to have blocked the road for days, molested commuters and vandalized vehicles.