The Divisional Officer, DO, for Mbanga Subdivision, Simon Nkwenti, Wednesday, July 23 at the Nkongsamba High Court testified that Pierre Roger Lambo Sandjo aka Lapiro de Mbanga, rallied boys who caused the February strike in Mbanga.

Nkwenti was speaking at the court during the trial of the 51-year-old musician.After Lapiro pleaded not guilty, Nkwenti said that on February 25 when the unrest began, he made frantic efforts to get Lapiro on phone.

He said when Lapiro arrived, he (Nkwenti) told Lapiro that he had heard that the Societe Plantation de Bananaraie, SPM Mbanga, had offered to pay him FCFA 500,000 to protect their company from destruction.

He said Lapiro told him that the company had not contacted him, though he (Lapiro) said he could only accept FCFA 2.5 million to calm the boys.Nkwenti disclosed that with finance aside, he beckoned the musician to help calm the striking youths who were on the verge of destroying the government high school.

The DO said Lapiro immediately obeyed. He said hours later on his way to the high school, he discovered that the office of SPM was being destroyed and he went there to restore calm.

The administrator said he was surprised to meet Lapiro with a camera, shooting pictures.

He told the court that together with the Mayor of Mbanga and the company commander for gendarmerie Mbanga, they saw a group of boys from Muyuka who arrived at the scene and began destroying the company's property.

Nkwenti said the boys were about beating Lapiro but they saved him. He said the boys seized Lapiro's camera from the company commander and destroyed it.He further explained that shortly after, they went to the SPM plantation where they met vandals cutting down banana stems and destroying the entire plantation.

The DO narrated that what angered him most was Lapiro's continuous boasting that he was the only one who could calm the boys from striking.He said from such bragging, they suspected that Lapiro had rallied the boys who instigated the strike and caused destruction in Mbanga.

For his part, the Mbanga Mayor told the court that on February 26, he caught sight of Lapiro beside his office, trying to calm down a group of boys who wanted to set it ablaze.

Mbonjo said the vandals retreated and went to Les Brasseries du Cameroun depot where he also went.

He explained that he followed them to the brewery company and subsequently, the train station.The Mayor stated that when the group arrived at the SPM plantation, he saw Lapiro filming the destruction.

He said that evening, himself, Lapiro, the DO and the company commander were in the house of the Director of SPM, Robert Eboumbou, drinking when Lapiro kept boasting that he was the only one who could calm down the striking boys.

But Lapiro, in the dock, asked Nkwenti whether he (Lapiro) was in Eboumbou's house.

Nkwenti replied that he would not know.In a cross-examination, Lapiro's lawyers headed by Barrister Augustine Mbami, wanted to know whether the DO actually saw Lapiro rallying boys who destroyed structures in the town.

But Barrister Mbami said the DO could have protected the camera from being destroyed so that they would actually know who caused the strike from the images.But the DO said he was informed on the night of February 26 that Lapiro was holding a secret meeting in his house without authorisation. He said he tried calling the musician in vain.

But Mbami argued that Lapiro did not need any authorisation for a private meeting in his house.By press time, the traditional ruler of Balong, Chief Magelan Mukete Ngoh, was testifying in court.