By Ikome Christie-noella Eposi in Buea
The All Bakweri Forum convened by Buea Mayor, Ekema Patrick Esunge took place yesterday, July 29 at the Buea Council Hall with the attendance of youths, men and children of the Bakweri clan.
But the meeting was unprecedentedly boycotted by Bakweri elites. Many Bakweri Traditional Rulers, Mayors, DOs, Lecturers, Ministers, Parliamentarians and other high profile personalities boycotted the forum. Even the Buea CPDM Section President who is a Bakwerian was not in attendance.
Among the prominent people in attendance was Mayor Ekema himself along with his deputies, except Motomby Mbome who apparently was unavoidably absent.
In the meeting dominated by the Bakweri dialect, the mayor said groupings like the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, headed by a deceitful leader in the name of Moderator who is a pure North Westerner who pretends to be a South Westerner. He said because of the lies and deceits perpetrated by the PCC Moderator, he no longer attends service at the Presbyterian Church because he cannot accept to be under such a deceitful mandate.
Ekema blamed the church for escalating the crisis especially the holding of the so-called Episcopal Conference in Bamenda. The Mayor blamed some Bakweri elites for spearheading the crisis by communicating with secessionist in the diaspora. He urged his tribesmen to combat the element of fear.
Below is a transcript of what Mayor Ekema Patrick Esunge told the Press at the end of the meeting:-
“I signed a circular inviting Bakwerians to discuss the ongoing socio-political impasse. And to our greatest dismay, on Friday, one of the issues we had to discuss at the meeting had to do with the release of the abducted chiefs. Unfortunately, one of them was killed by these Markizas on Friday.
“If you observed, the tone of the meeting changed. And now, we are looking forward towards retaliation. We cannot sit quiet. We cannot stay mute when such things are happening in our community. There are communities where to stretch your hand to greet a traditional authority is a sacrilege, it’s forbidden.
“You take our chiefs, abduct them, assassinate and put them at gunpoint to make inflammatory statements. Enough is enough! I think we shall go to the field and have a direct confrontation and see who is going to be the net loser.
“If you followed my press release, we invited Bakwerians to meet and dialogue. In my introductory statement, I spoke in the Queen’s language. But I was called to order by participants that it was a Bakweri forum so we had to flow in the dialect.
“There are two major resolutions taken at this meeting: the first is that Bakwerians are going to mobilise themselves on Tuesday to take a common stand in view of the release of the abducted chiefs and to sanction the assassination of the Chief of Lysoka Moliwe. Definitely, it will be peaceful. But 24 hours thereafter, it is going to be violent.
“The second resolution taken at this meeting as the people’s representatives, we have been mandated to stop the so-called Anglophone Conference or meeting purportedly called by the retired priest. We are going to restrict his visit to our municipality.
“Remember, at the beginning of this crisis, the clergy met severally in Bamenda to frustrate school resumption. And we have a feeling, a very strong one, that meeting again in August at the eve of school resumption is another ploy to destabilise the effective resumption of schools in September. We don’t want that. He should hold his meeting in Douala or he should go to Banson and hold that meeting. I don’t want to hear it! Whether it is the Head of State who authorises him, we don’t want that here. That is my competence and I am going to exercise it fully.”