BY ATIA AZOHNWI
Eden Newspaper’s Limbe City Reporter, Quindia Eshu Thadius is currently in gendarmerie custody after his arrest by armed police officers last December 19, 2016.
Security officials claim that the Limbe-based journalist has been fanning the flames to the crisis that has since enveloped Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions.
Quindia was whisked off into a police van on his way to Limbe from Douala where he had gone to print newspapers. He is said to have been very passionate in reporting about the marginalisation of Anglophones in a French dominated Cameroon. He is also accused of taking a tough stance against government during radio debates.
The policemen at the Missellele security checkpoint quickly identified him and ferried him to the Limbe Gendarmerie Post where he has since been held incommunicado. A gendarmerie source hinted that the torture meted out on the journalist is in a bid to deter others from supporting the activities of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) and other separatist groups.
Pressure from local journalism groupings and human rights lawyers led to the transfer of Quindia to Yaoundé. He is said to have been aided by an Anglophone officer to escape while on transit.
If caught, Quindia will have to face the death penalty in accordance with the December 2014 law on the suppression of acts of terrorism. Quindia’s whereabouts remains in doubt as security officers widen their dragnet to catch him.
He is among the many journalists who had been threatened by local administrative and security officials through anonymous calls and texts.
Common Law Lawyers have been on strike to protest government’s attempts to annihilate the Common Law practice in a constitutionally bilingual and bi-jural Cameroon. The strike has been on Since October 11.
Anglophone teachers in the country joined the strike last November 21 to uphold Anglo-Saxon values under threat in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions.
Matters came to a head on Thursday, December 8 when the population of Bamenda took to the streets to denounce the politicisation of a strike action they consider genuine and borne of longstanding grievances.
Days of ghost town have since been observed throughout the South West and North West Regions of the country.