BY KUBU EVELYN
A human rights activist, Owan Tabi Joseph Tabi, who founded a human rights association, Rights for All, is currently on the run, after having been persecuted, arrested and tortured for propagating federalism as the principal solution to the Anglophone problem.
Owan is reported to have launched the activities of the association in 2014 to make his inputs towards seeking solution to the Anglophone problem, which is rocking the foundations of the country.
However, his propagation of federalism as the principal system of government which can resolve the Anglophone problem did not go down well with the Biya regime, which has been insisting on a decentralised unitary form of government. Owan, through his association, sensitised Anglophones on their right to self-determination, fighting against human rights abuses and supporting persons detained within the context of the Anglophone problem.

As the activist continued to carry out activities such as seminars, workshops, symposia and meetings to educate English-speaking Cameroonians on federalism and urging them to seek it as a solution to the Anglophone problem, the regime, through the police, gendarmerie, and the military, persecuted Owan. He was arrested many times, tortured and detained under inhumane conditions.
But this did not deter Owan from his activism as he also continued organising demonstrations that called for federalism and the release of political prisoners related to the Anglophone problem.
Owan’s ordeals of arrests began in June 2014 when policemen stormed a venue in Buea where he had organised a seminar on federalism. He was arrested and whisked off to the police station, where he was tortured and detained for several hours before being released.
Meanwhile, years later in January 2021, the office of Rights for All was burgled, computers carted away, office equipment destroyed. In February the same year, a team of police and gendarmes stormed the activist’s house and arrested Owan. He was taken to the police station where he was coerced to renounce his Anglophone activism and dump his campaign promoting the opinion that Anglophones have a historical identity and have the right to self-determination. Failing to do so, Owan’s life is said to have been threatened by the security operatives.
Though he was later released, we gathered that Owan was put under the surveillance of the secret service police, known by its French acronym, CENER.
Prior to the January 2021 office burglary, the police constantly visited Owan’s office, to monitor the activities of his association. The police sometimes disrupted the activities of the association. Owan’s residence was also regularly visited by the CENER.
For fear of his life due to the constant persecution, arrests, tortures and threat of life, Owan Tabi Joseph Tabi, in April 2021, vamoosed and his whereabouts is not known.
However, security operatives are said to still constantly pay impromptu visits to his house in search of him. We gathered that the last time they were there the police presented a warrant of arrested issued for Owan.
If arrested, Owan Tabi Joseph Tabi will be tried in a military tribunal, under the 2014 anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death sentence. That is if he is not killed outright like many others, who have been victims of extrajudicial killings within the context of the Anglophone crisis.