Chris Mbunwe
6 October 2008
The Social Democratic Front, SDF, party has called on the Minister of Defence for National Security, Alain Mebe Ngo'o to immediately resign for "gross negligence of duty."
In a two-page press release dated October 1, signed by the SDF Chairman John Fru Ndi, the SDF blames the attack on Limbe on the two cabinet ministers who are quoted by local tabloids as saying that they were not surprised by the attack in Limbe that left one dead and robbed Amity Bank.
The release states that, "a senior official of the department revealed that they were aware that such a thing would happen in Douala and Limbe. What did they do? A similar raid took place in Bata, Equatorial Guinea in 2007 when some banks were targeted. Cameroonians resident in that country were accused of being responsible and were deported as a result.
Did this not serve as a warning to managers of our security system?" Fru Ndi asked.
Describing the incident as a big blow to national sovereignty, Fru Ndi says Limbe, which is home to some of Cameroon's most sophisticated defence and security installations backed by a Rapid Intervention Force and the Delta Force that observes Bakassi from Bota, "this becomes a slap in the face of our national sovereignty."
Considering the logistics and organisations that these bandits must have put in place and the ease with which they operated, the SDF is apprehensive of the effectiveness of Cameroon's national intelligence network, "despite the huge expenditure that is injected yearly into the budget for national defence."
According to SDF, the raid was, therefore, "a perfect rebuff of our national security and defence system." According to Fru Ndi's release, the history of gun running by CPDM bigwigs is no secret.
Hear Him, "In 1990s, the SDF intercepted two bills of lading about arms imported by highly placed CPDM barons and alerted the regime but it turned a blind eye to it and allowed them into the country."
These arms, Fru Ndi continues, "must have been distributed to CPDM militants for use against the opposition and particularly the SDF." Furthermore, the release says the armoury in Yaounde was burnt down and during the process huge quantities of arms and ammunitions were carted away.
"Today, a significant quantity of arms used by bandits is of a military type. It could be concluded that these are some of the arms that were imported by the CPDM barons or those stolen during the fire incident," Fru Ndi noted.
The release recalls that the attack on Limbe follows the ones in Bakassi where several Cameroonian soldiers and a Divisional Officer were killed.This, to the SDF, is only the tip of the iceberg, because many other instances include the repeated and ever-increasing occupation of Cameroon's national territory by criminals from Chad and the Central African Republic.
They have made rampant road hold ups and repeatedly taken entire villages hostage. Apart from this, the release notes that there has been increasing insecurity in our towns and cities, manifested by armed robbery, rape and murder.
"In addition to this, the recent theft of a suitcase full of cash within the closest circles of the Head of State makes us believe strongly that there are urgent security issues to be addressed before they address us," notes the release.
From the foregoing and what is happening in Cameroon today, Fru Ndi says the government has shown enough proof that it is completely unable to govern this country, evidence of the repeated inability to hold up to its most obvious attributes, which include the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation and the security and safety of its citizens and institutions.
The SDF calls on the President to immediately put in place a parliamentary commission of inquiry with full powers to investigate why, with all the security infrastructure in place, it was still possible for this attack to take place and also make recommendations to prevent a recurrence.
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