The 43rd National Day May 20 celebrations in Bamenda, the political headquarters of the North West Region was celebrated within a backdrop of the military fight against the Boko Haram insurgence in the Northern parts of Cameroon. The military march past that used to draw admiration over the years was a shadow of itself. The tiny size of the various military components that turned up for the march past was enough evidence that government’s attention is focused on fighting the Boko Haram jihadist group. The main event that generated interest and attention from the mammoth crowd of onlookers was the political parties’ march past. In their quest to show which of the party has a huge following in the city of Bamenda, the two old rivals, the Social Democratic Front party (SDF) of Ni John Fru Ndi and the ruling Cameroon People Democratic Movement party (CPDM) of President Paul Biya were in a cold war. The results of previous May 20th march past in Bamenda and elections have always favoured the SDF Party.
This time around, to challenge SDF’s numerical strength, the CPDM leaders of Bamenda I, II and III that used to make up the former Mezam I, under the leadership of Cletus Anye Matoyah solicited the intervention of two higher public institutions of learning in Mezam to come to their rescue. The Vice Chancellor of the University of Bamenda, Professor Edokat Edward and the Principal of the Government Bilingual Teacher Training College Bamenda as report says were contacted on the May 16 to individually provide students to boost their numerical strength. Mbah Miriam Tanteh, one of the ambulance students revealed that they were selected and instructed by their authorities to join the CPDM Party in the march past against a handsome reward of 1000F CFA, 2 bottles of drinks and a plate of food at the Congress hall after the march past. Closed to about five hundred Government matriculated students were mobilized.
The march past committee’s decision to regulate the number per educational establishment to 250 opened up more avenues for the CPDM hierarchy to get more students to swear up their ranks. Immediately the march past was over, reports say the student militants gathered at the Congress hall to have a bite and quench down their thirst as promised. They would later discover the absence of the party’s hierarchy to attend to them. They consequently mounted barricades at the both ends of the congress hall streets, set ablaze CPDM party T-Shirts, damaging window louvers and chanting anti-CPDM slogans. This attracted the attention of the Senior Divisional Officer for Mezam, Felix Nguelle Nguelle to the scene. It took his intellect, political and administrative experience to handle the situation. The disgruntled fictitious militants were then handed envelops of 500F CFA each as the military took over guard of the congress hall.
- See more at: http://cameroon-concord.com/news/item/3203-bamenda-university-students-set-cpdm-party-t-shirts-on-fire#sthash.z2GoZe5o.dpuf
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