Barrister Nseke emerges as new Mayor of Limbe III

It was yet another dramatic twist at Limbe III Council in Bimbia on Monday, September 01, during the election of a new mayor to replace late Mayor Dalle Isaac Inongo who passed away on July 3.

In line with the provisions of the law, the Senior Divisional Officer had 60 days to call for fresh elections.

It is on the basis of this that Zang III, the Senior Divisional Officer for Fako summoned the councillors for an extra ordinary council session to vote in a new mayor.

Being a CPDM-run council, the Central Committee of the party had a role to play in the choice of the mayor and therefore dispatched a three-man powerful delegation to oversee proceedings and primaries.

Tension was brewing in Limbe days after the announcement was made for the elections of Mayor for the Limbe III Council.

Two names went wild as aspirants for the coveted position; Central Committee Member and pioneer mayor of the Council, Esebou Mokate Samuel and Barrister Nseke Luma, Limbe III councilor and Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Limbe City Council.

On election day information filtered out that the Central Committee has sent a delegation to conduct an internal election to produce a lone candidate.

That version was confirmed as H.E Dion Ngute, Sir Humphrey Ekema Monono and Ekombe Mbua Isaac represented the Central Committee in a closed-door meeting that held at the council chambers.

The verdict of the 23 councilors sent silent joy to the camp of Barrister Nseke as he won his opponent by 13 votes to 10. It should be noted that out of the 25 councillors of the council, one is dead, the Late mayor and one is hospitalized in the person of Elessa Robert.

When the Senior Divisional Officer and his entourage arrived, the quorum was set for the extra ordinary session to be chaired by him as supervisory authority in charge of council matters. After the preliminary greetings and roll call, the head of the CPDM Group in the Council, Chief Epupa Samuel Ekum was called up to present the candidate of the party to the administration for election.

Just before then Councilor Elessa Robert was brought in from his CDC Cottage Hospital bed to cast his vote. At that point in time, there were 24 candidates ready to vote.

Chief Ekum then stood up and said the party has chosen to nominate Barrister Nseke Luma as their choice for mayor. Then drama began as Councillor George Burnely and Councilor Esebou Mokate objected that they differ from the choice stating that they have a different proposal. The SDO was precise in their submission that the party has decided and he is in no way ready to have any other proposal.

He said they would have discussed everything in the CPDM meeting and come to a compromise before coming to the administration. Zang III said the only thing left for them to do at the time was to follow judicial procedures if they think the election was not done in the proper manner.

Councillor Mokate reminded the SDO that the September 30 elections last year had the same procedures and another candidate was presented beside the choice of the Central Committee.

Zang III said he was not present during the elections last year in Limbe III but said that if it was done like that, then it cannot be done like that when he is around.

The voting continued while the SDO explained that according to the law, the winner must have more than 50% of the votes. In this case, the winner needed to have 13 votes out of the 24 candidates to carry the day if not there would be a need for a re-run or another session.

This brought in more tension as there were speculations that anything could happen from either camp; that is cross carpeting to avoid absolute majority.

The camp of Nseke Luma was very confident in their 13 members while the Mokate camp was also strategizing.

It was rumoured that Mokate and his team decided to give null votes so that it would be difficult for the other camp to have 13 votes. At the end of the voting, it was set for the counting; the null votes came very often to a point where there was a tie.

At the end of it, it was 13 votes for Nseke Luma and 11 votes for Mokate Samuel; one more vote purportedly following the arrival of Councilor Ellesa Robert. The SDO then proceeded to officially declare Barrister Nseke Luma as the new Mayor of Limbe III Council.

Zang III advised the new mayor to work for the development of the council area and not for personal interest, saying the council is not a private property, rather a collective institution.

Zang said the councilors should be one and work together. He told the other councillors to join behind their mayor to build the municipality.

In his first ever press interview as mayor-elect, Barrister Nseke Luma said he promised to be development oriented and follow the instructions of the SDO.

Mayor-elect, Barrister Nseke Luma said being a practicing lawyer is an added advantage rather than an impediment. He said the two positions are very compatible stressing that as a young man he is still energetic and can count on team work for delivery of effective service to the community. Barrister Nseke the Man

The 38 year-old Mayor elect is a solicitor, Barrister and at Law and Notary Public of the supreme court of Cameroon. He has been in practice for many years and has militated for the CPDM from his youth where he has held positions of leadership at party level.

The senior councilor is presently the Chairman of the Finance committee of the Limbe City Council. The erudite and dynamic Mayor elect is happily married and father of four children.

Reactions He masters council matters Senior Councilor Peter Kum Ngeh, Secretary of the Finance Committee of the LCC Well, as my chairman, I am optimistic that he will be up to the task after working with him for some time now. First of all, being the Chairman of the Finance Committee, he worked and calculated larger budgets than that of the Bimbia Council. In fact he masters council matters. His dynamism will make him a very successful mayor especially with his legal background. He will deliver Senior Councilor Ngaaje It is with an air of joy that I accept to respond to your question; it is to me an issue of continuity at the council. I am very delighted for being part and parcel of this new vision; I am very satisfied because we have shown our maturity as far as democracy is concerned. We are very sure he will be able to deliver and we plan to stand by him as councilors and give him our total support when the need arise.

We promise him our support Ekongolo Isaac YCPDM Bimbia Sub Section President I fell very happy because it is another young man who is taking over affairs of the council. Limbe III Council is a young council and needs development which only the youths can deliver. We the youths are very confident in the new mayor, we promise to work with him and make our municipality a dream one for tourism and other investment opportunities.