BY IKOME CHRISTIE-NOELLA EPOSI
Tapang Ivo Tanku, interim co-leader of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC) has shifted position following the arrest of the consortium leaders on January 17, 2017.
Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla, President of the CACSC and his Secretary General, Dr. Fontem Aforteka’a Neba were arrested in Buea shortly after the consortium was banned by the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Rene Emmanuel Sadi.
Immediately the consortium was banned that fateful day, Barrister Agbor Balla handed over the leadership of the CACSC to Tapang Ivo Tanku and Mark Bareta.
Three months after, Tapang seems to be shifting from their initial advocacy for a return to a two-state federation to the outright independence for former West Cameroon. They call the said territory Ambazonia.
Tapang has since organised pro-separatist meetings in California USA, as well as demonstrations to demand the unconditional release of the detained leaders.
Throughout the month of March 2017, several demonstrations were organised across the US. Dressed in black, Anglophone Women in California have decried the maiming, killings, torture and the imprisonment of their loved ones by the regime of President Paul Biya who has been in power since 1982.
Most of the demonstrations call for the outright independence of Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions into a state called Ambazonia.
Last April 22, 2017, Tapang organised a populous meeting in California during which funds were raised to support the suffering masses in Anglophone Cameroon, especially after internet was shut down in the area.
During an enlarged security and administrative meeting in Buea on Monday, May 15, 2017 ahead of National Day on May 20, it was revealed that some civil servants have abandoned their duty posts and gone to the diaspora to join forces with the likes of Tapang.
A trusted source leaked out the list of such civil servants along with their photos which we for now choose not to make public.
Governor Okalia Bilai Bernard who chaired the meeting said all civil servants who are either activists or seen to be sympathising with the Ambazonia activists will be brought to book.
Some photos of Tapang Ivo Tanku and some activists were made available to the police, with the attorney general of the South West Court of Appeal issuing an arrest warrant for those in the photos.
If arrested, the pro-Tapang activists would be tried at the Yaounde Military Court on charges of terrorism, secession, rebellion, revolution and hostilities against the homeland. The maximum sentence goes with these charges.
By associating themselves with Tapang, many are those who have put themselves in the wanted list of Cameroon’s security forces.
The anglophone crisis started in October last year with common law lawyers and teachers presenting corporatist demands and condemning years of marginalisation of Anglophones.
Things came to a head on November 21 when Mancho Bibixy’s coffin revolution coincided with a teacher’s strike. Days of ghost town has since followed, leading to arrests and killings. There’s no end in sight.