-The untold details of the ‘bitter-sweet’ drama
– Last four abductees freed Monday
By Sah Terence Animbom and Moma Sandrine
The heat has been on; steam blowing pretty hot and lots of stones either cast on one side or the other. It was asked by concerned big minds of the country and even the common man “Who abducted the 79 PSS Nkwen Students on Monday November 5, 2018?” and many were lost as so many powerful arguments from one side or the other placed either side on the right.
The SUN Newspaper brings to you an unbeatable account of what transpired, born of the fruit of an extensive investigation carried out from the source of the abductions to the point of release.
On Saturday November 10, 2018, The SUN’s investigative reporter took a daring walk into the Amba rocked Ntasen, Mubang, Nkwenjang communities and to the Amba conquered Bafut subdivision on Sunday November 11, 2018 in a bid to find out from the common man on the ground what they sensed on the night of the abductions so as to present to its readership and general public an angle of the story far from government protocol and traditional style of media reporting in Cameroon.
The Genesis
“It was at about 3:00 am that we heard knocks on our dormitory doors. As we were still hesitating and wondering what to do and who was knocking and obliging us to open at that time, the doors were broken into by people who looked more like Amba Boys than soldiers. Some carried dane guns and others had real AK-47s. They pushed us all to one side and started some sort of random selection which to me was based on physical outlooks like size, height and perhaps strength. They were quite harsh and dished out some reasonable slaps to any student who was either hesitant to answer their questions or feet dragging himself to join those who had been selected to be herded away. I was not selected and I am not sure why I was left behind but many of my mates were selected and taken away together with those from the other dormitories. The language of the kidnappers was the real ‘mbocko pidgin’ that made us know for sure that we were in Amba hands.”
They were not taken away in a car they were blindfolded and made to hold each other’s hands thereby moving in a chain our witness added.
A prudent walk from the PSS Nkwen school gate at Ntasen, a village located in Nkwen Fondom, found some 7 kilometers North of the Center city of Bamenda, revealed that the abducted students were taken on foot from Ntasen through Mubang to Nkwenjang which is the last village in the Nkwen Fondom and then into Nforya along Swe Road in Bafut Fondom and SubDivision.
Sampling the experiences of villagers in Mubang, Nkwenjang and Swe Road located some 10 kilometers Northwards from the point of abductions they revealed “It was at some few minutes to 4:00 am or say at exactly 4:00am that I heard footsteps of people moving in some kind of a stampede pass my house and being shouted at by I want to think the persons leading them. They were actually shouting at them in pidgin English asking them to move faster.” A road side dweller in Mubang just a kilometer from the point of abduction told The SUN.
Somewhere at Nkwenjang, about 8 kilometers away from the point of abduction, another inhabitant told The SUN, “I did not personally hear movements but some of our roadside inhabitants testify of having heard footsteps of people moving like a herd of cows that morning at about 5:00am.”
It is worth mentioning that the students continued to an unknown camp where they spent the day and then the night.
“We were moved from the first camp where we spent the night to another one where we received even better treatment. They even roasted chicken for us and allowed us to roast plantains. In fact they behaved better towards us and we had a feeling like they were our brothers. They even bought sanitary pad for some of our girls. One of the abducted students told The SUN. When we were moving, they will stop at various intervals and make calls to some people ahead who told them whether the military was present or not,” one of the freed abductees tells us.
Contrary to claims propagated by some advocates of propaganda that the Students were kidnapped and transported in a military car after the chaplain of the school woke up students and ushered them into a military truck, all investigations show that there was no means by which a car could use the stretch of road used by the students and their kidnappers due to some huge trees that had been long fallen by Amba boys to block the road some months back.
The road only became passable again after the military came in to the community at about 8:00am and went clearing the trees from the road. It was during such clearing and shooting that some two civilians lost their lives – a man in his late 30s at Swe Road and the other a student of about 18 in Mubang village. The governor could only use the road after it had been cleared by military to go searching for the children following the same road they were taken through but not exactly.
Plus the road leads to Agyati just after PSS Bafut, at a point declared by Amba Boys as no go zones for the military. To note here that Amba boys apparently have control of about 95% of Bafut Subdivision.
The End
Our investigations shows that the students did not come out at Agyati but through Ntabuwe and Ntangoh which is further deep into the Amba controlled territory in Bafut. Talking with people in Nsem village in Bafut located about 35 kilometers from point of abduction, they said they only noticed the presence of students in their community at about 10:00pm on Tuesday night when the students were brought by their kidnappers and left at the church. The students sang praise and worship songs through the night as they stayed in church, we learnt.
A local says, “We woke up to a state of paranoia on Wednesday morning as some few military officers got into the church premises armed to the teeth and intimidated the parish pastor for PC Nsem the Rev Ndam Elias asking him to sit down. While his wife fled the intimidation shouting at the top of her voice “them don beat pastor ooooh!!!” we were already far across Ntangoh watching from a distance the commotion going on there. Shortly after we noticed military trucks come in to take the children.”
The military only entered here again that day after staying for more than a month without coming above PSS Bafut. Our Nsem based witness told The SUN. We Know that the Amba controls this territory so the only people that could have the courage to be out after curfew time and in this part of Bafut and with such a crowd of students who were very weak and tired were the Amba Boys.
The Vice principal for PSS Nkwen Senge Vincent together with the discipline master Mr.Vuga have remained under custody.
Parents who just had admission for their children the weekend before the incident are coming back to claim the school fee they paid as the School has been temporarily closed.
All abductees freed!
The four persons from Presbyterian Secondary School Nkwen who were still being held by kidnappers were released on Monday, November 12. They are: the Principal, one teacher and two students. This comes after the release of 78 school children and a driver last Wednesday.