By Cynthia Bih
As the crisis rocking the North West and South West regions, which has spiraled into an armed conflict, rages on, the government has stepped up its crackdown on all those suspected to be activists, collaborators or sympathisers to the Anglophone cause.
Family members and friends of separatist leaders and fighters are also being arrested and detained, including those who have had anything to do with separatist fighters or have come in contact with hem.
In this light, defence and security forces have been indiscriminately arresting such persons. Sources say the arrested persons are being detained under deplorable and inhuman conditions. Some have reported died in detention.
This has caused many of them to flee into hiding and the whereabouts of many is not known.
A case is that of Ufon Mispa, who is said to be wanted by security operatives for having associated with separatist fighters in Ngie Subdivision, Momo Division of the North West Region.
Ufon Mispa joined the public service in 2004 as a Livestock Technician. In January 2008, she is said to have bought 14 cows, which she used as a demonstration farm for grazers whom she supervised.
However, just 10 months after, the cows were stolen, reportedly by one Ngumbe Jibo Jalo. Ufon is said to have reported the matter to the gendarmerie brigade in the area, and that same year the matter was sent to the Mbengwi Court of First Instance for legal procedure.
Nonetheless, the matter dragged on in court and at one point Ufon was asked to bring more evidence, despite the fact that the cattle herder who had been taking care of the cows and many others had testified that Ngumbe was the one who stole the cows.
Meanwhile, Ngumbe is believed to have bribed the judge who kept dragging his feet on the matter until 2016 when the Anglophone crisis broke out.
When the crisis started, Ufon was forced to flee the area because of insecurity. However, one day she learned that judgment on the matter had been passed in favour of Ngumbe Jibo Jalo. She was then advised to go to Mbengwi and follow up an appeal of the judgement.
The State Counsel of Mbengwi and Ufon’s lawyer are said to have filed an appeal at the Appeal Court in Bamenda. The appeal also kept dragging on at the Appeal Court in Bamenda. Ufon was forced to always leave Yaounde to Bamenda to attend court sessions, but the accused, Ngumbe Jibo Jalo, was never present.
Sometime in 2018, Ufon is said to have learned that people in the village, whose cows had had been stolen, have been going to separatist fighters to report and the fighters help in forcing those who stole the cows to pay. She thus went to the village, met the separatist fighters and reported the matter to them. The fighters are said to have called Ngumbe and told him to either pay for Ufon’s cows or he will be taken to their camp.
Ngumbe is said to have accepted to pay and Ufon, knowing that the matter had dragged on for too long, is reported to have said all she wanted was the money she had bought the cows, which was 2 million FCFA.
One week after, Ngumbe is said to have paid Ufon’s money.
Meanwhile, Mohamadu Nfor, Divisional Officer of Ngie Subdivision, Momo Division of the North West Region, after learning that Ufon had gone to separatist fighters for them to force Ngumbe to pay for her cows, had told her that what she did was not good. He had also warned her that if the government becomes aware of it, she will be in big trouble.
Things turned ugly for Ufon when sometime in 2023 she was informed that Ngumbe had gone and reported her to the military, claiming that she was associating with separatist fighters. Thereafter Ufon’s salary was suspended by the government and a manhunt was launched for her.
For fear of her safety, Ufon is said to have gone into hiding and her whereabouts is not known. If arrested, she will be tried in a military tribunal, under the anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death sentence. That is if she is not killed outright, like many others who have been victims of extrajudicial killings.