Azore Opio
4 July 2008
"I was explaining that they could buy diesel from somewhere else as the old woman was not willing to reduce her price when the DO pounced on me. He grabbed my shirt collar and started raining blows on my head."
These are the words of Christopher Changkong who talked to The Post, Tuesday 1.The story had previously been reported in our June 7 edition No.0958, in which the Divisional Officer, DO, for Nwa, Michael Chumbong Lani, accompanied by Nwa CPDM MP, Hon. Genesis Mbukseck and Commissioner for Frontier Police, Enongene Mbeseh, reportedly brutalised Changkong in Fam village, Nwa Subdivision in Donga-Mantung Division.
It was reported that the "DO pounced on Changkong with punches that inflicted injuries on Changkong's head with blood oozing."The DO on his part reportedly said, "We were surprised that Changkong, who hails from the Southwest, started insulting us for bargaining that the woman should sell 20 litres of petrol to us at FCFA 15,000, instead of FCFA 16,000.
That is why we bundled him into the vehicle. He first starting kicking the Commissioner, claiming he knew him so well since all of them are from the Southwest. In short, this young man is not a petrol seller, but will poke his nose into what doesn't concern him. He actually insulted state authority."
But Changkong said he never started by kicking the Commissioner nor did he insult him.
"My brothers were at the junction. We were going to visit our sick father when the DO and his entourage landed. They were on their way to Ntong. They wanted to buy petrol (funge) which comes from Nigeria. And this old woman, Dina Awah, was the one selling 20 litres at FCFA 16,000.
"The DO tried to haggle with her but she was not willing to cut down the price. So I thought I could advise the DO to buy the fuel elsewhere. But he became brutal and even wanted to seize the old woman's fuel because, "they don't even pay taxes. As I tried to explain, the DO leaped at me, started pounding me. When I tried to free myself, the Commissioner and a gendarme fell on me.
"They were delivering crunching blows into me and on my head. Then a gun butt crashed on the back of my head. In no time, I was splashed with my own blood. It is inconceivable that the DO removed a gun from the Police Commissioner and hit my head with it."
Changkong recounted that the DO and his men bundled him into their car and drove him to Ntong Health Centre, where the doctor there said he could not stitch the gash in his head without down payment.
According to Changkong, the DO abandoned him to his bleeding self. He said the Police Commissioner added insult to injury by ordering the council policeman who had been assigned to guard him to avail him with a cutlass to slash the grass on the hospital yard while the DO attended a rally.
Changkong said he worked for a few minutes with blood still oozing from his head wound and dizziness overwhelming him before the Commissioner ordered for his release.It was only after his brothers had rallied some money that the doctor went to work on his head.
"Without my brothers, I don't know what I would have done. They paid something like FCFA 10,000," said the 29-year-old yam farmer.All attempts we made to talk to the DO for Nwa on phone were futile as he did not pick our calls.
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Cameroon is a lawless place. A country where law come to existence when it is being applied on a less privilege citizen. Those officials are people who got to those positions coz they were lucky and corrupt. The mentality of officials in Cameroon is compared to that of those who lived in the 1920s in other continents. I mean even the Head of State will behave like that. The cops and soldiers beat and harass when they are wron. They useless things menace people coz the are wearing a uniform. That place needs enlightened leaders and citizens.