Effa Tambenkongho
3 October 2008
The youths were on strike after complaining of banditry and harassment in the neighbourhood.
The inhabitants of Bepanda were on a protest march on October 1, complaining of a lot of banditry and crime wave in the area. The inhabitants gathered with placards condemning banditry before the seventh Police Station in Bepanda. They called on the police to act because they are tired of seeing their daughters and wives being raped, their goods stolen, their young men wounded by armed bandits.
The population had complained on September 30th calling on the police to intervene and help them out. According to them no action was taken and they blamed the forces of law and order for laxity. They complained it is disheartening there is a police station in their neighbourhood but armed bandits stroll in and harm them and leave successfully.
The inhabitants gathered and had a discussion with the commissioner of Police and the Divisional Officer for Douala V. They came out with a Communiqué which was disclosed only to the striking population and signed by Ngounou Gabriel the Divisional Officer.
The Civil Administrator in a bid to reinforce security promised to reinstate local vigilante groups which had been dissolved and this time around will be reinstated after a scrupulous study of the lists of nominees proposed by the inhabitants to be in the groups.
It is worth noting that in the neighbourhood had been terrorised by armed men who apart from looting, battery, wounding the inhabitants also raped the women, and according to the inhabitants there was no response from the forces of Law and Order despite clarion calls by the inhabitants for police intervention.
The police represented by the Second Commander boss, decried lack of personnel, while calling on the population to collaborate by revealing the bandits and their hideouts. The striking inhabitants dispersed satisfied with the decision which was reached by the authorities.
It is worth remarking that some three ladies and goods worth more than FCFA three million, and human damages were registered in the area within the last five weeks.
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