SCNC ACTIVISTS ARRESTED IN LIMBE
TARHYANG ENOWBIKAH TABE
Security forces in Limbe, South West Region, on Monday April 6, arrested six activists of the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC.
The detained SCNC activists were arrested during a private meeting and immediately ferried to the Limbe police station where they spent some days before being transferred to the Buea Central prison apparently to await trial. We gathered that their national identity card, mobile phones and other personal belongings were confiscated and are alleged to have been unlawfully detained and tortured during the arrest. The arrested are Mr. Tanga Ndolo Joel – Youth President, SCNC, Limbe chapter, and Entrepreneur by profession.
Mr Theophilus Ndoh Ngah – Youth Secretary General SCNC Limbe Chapter, Teacher by profession and Mr Paul Foundoung Macaulay – Youth Financial Secretary SCNC Limbe Chapter and Aspiring Lawyer by profession, among others arrested.
The National secretariat of the SCNC has called for their immediate and unconditional release. A well-placed security source who sued for anonymity hinted us that the arrest was as a result of a tip-off from an SCNC insider.
“We were informed of a meeting to be held by some youth officials of SCNC in Limbe in which very radical decisions were to be arrived at. The meeting venue was at new town.” The security source said. He went on to add that when they arrived at the meeting venue, they met “six Young SCNC activists” who were already deliberating in what looked like a meeting of SCNC youth executives.
By press time, the arrested activists have already spent weeks at the Buea central prison where they have been charged with hostility against the fatherland, and holding of an illegal assembly which is punishable under the new anti terrorism law promulgated by the president of the Republic in 2014, to combat boko haram the islamist sect who have been crossing border from neighbouring Nigeria in to Cameroon. Attempts to reach any of the arrested activists were unsuccessful.
However we got to Mola Njoh Litumbe, senior citizen and a well known statesman within the SCNC circle. Litumbe confirmed the arrest of the activists.
He went further to challenge the government of the Republic of Cameroon to respect the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) No 266/2003 and to stop trying to annihilate the movement. Also reacting to the arrest, Journalism and communication professor Prof Tata Mentan said: Politics by thugs can never be different. Flush out the dictatorship and you can chart your path to unbridled freedom, peace and development.
The Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC has made it their mission to bring autonomy to the Southern Cameroons nation and to seek restitution for the ongoing persecution at the hands of the Republic of Cameroon.
Exactions by the government of Cameroon against SCNC are numerous and recurrent and often result in Indefinite detention periods and postponed court hearing.