By Atia Tilarious Azohnwi
Even as the dust is about settling on the events that saw armed men block the Bamenda-Akum highway for several hours, many are the questions that have surfaced. Many are those who have cast doubts as to the identity of the men who had as much courage as to paralyze traffic, destroy transport buses and even kill innocent unarmed civilians.
At least two persons were reportedly killed in the night that stretched from Saturday, September 8 to Sunday, September 9 as armed men took commuters hostage.
The attack occurred at about 10:00pm local time when the armed men believed to be affiliated to pro-independence groups first attacked the base of a road construction company in Akum, a locality situated at the entrance to Bamenda, seizing an excavator, we learnt.
According to our source who prefers anonymity, they took off from Bamenda for Buea at about 8pm. By 10pm, they arrived Akum only to find a group of men digging across the road. As they wondered what could be going on, Timothy, driver at MOGHAMO agency stepped out of his car to find out what was happening. Thinking to himself that the digging on the road was carried out by the forces of law and order maybe for security reasons, without further thoughts, he greeted the men in the French language. Unfortunately for him, the men he greeted were apparently members of the separatist group, Ambazonia who got angered by just getting a word in French and immediately shot at the driver.
The armed men later used the “SATOM” excavator to dig a gorge on the road cutting off the region from the rest of the country.
This created a heavy traffic on the road as all night buses could not cross over and were forced to stop as a result. The armed men then took control of all the vehicles that lined up the road, seizing and destroying identification cards of all passengers, a source said.
The men later used the excavator to destroy at least four 70-seater buses belonging to the Amour Mezam travelling agency and one Moghamo travel agency bus, sources said. The excavator was later set ablaze by the men before taking off to the bushes when the military finally arrived at the scene. The stranded passengers were escorted back to Bamenda by the military while works have been immediately launched in the gorged section of the road to enable transport activities return to normal.
The men cut the green-red-yellow portion of the ID cards of somewhat all of the commuters. The travelers were asked to sit in the mud as it rained that night, with a few kids spared.
Many are those who wonder how possible it was for such an attack to be staged for several hours without a military response. How was it that the attackers were so skilled in manipulating a front-end loader to the extent of causing untold damage?
The fact that the military exercised restrain by not attacking may be their wish to protect civilians that would have been caught in a shootout.
Shortly after information of the attack went viral, pro-independence activists like Eric Tataw, Mark Bareta and Tapang Ivo quickly claimed responsibility of the attack, each in their mown corner. Others of their ilk are now questioning the sincerity of the claim that separatists executed the job. They have been trying to put the blame on government, suggesting that the attack may have been done by a pro-government armed group.
Their recent claims after initially claiming glory for the attacks may be to save face following widespread condemnation of the incident where even kids were subjected to torture. Government is further vindicated because the road was gorged; Amour Mezam buses damaged, persons killed and ID cards destroyed.
All fingers are now pointing at the separatists who had initially claimed responsibility.