Chief Epupa: Fako chiefs are a disappointment, Judas Iscariots

Chief Samuel Epupa was supposed to be the chair of the Fako Chiefs' Conference that took place in Muyuka last week as current President. But he boycotted the gathering having sniffed that it was allegedly sponsored by some South West Administrators with interest in the present land scandal in the area. In this interview, he told the Journal why he boycotted the meeting and advances reasons why the chiefs rushed to electing a new leadership. Atia Azonwhi conducted the interview.

Why did you boycott the election of a new executive of the Fako Chiefs’ conference?

It was an illegal meeting. You know in every society, you must have some Judas Iscariots. A majority of Fako chiefs did not attend that Muyuka meeting. That meeting did not even form a quorum. We even know that some of the administrators who are all involved in this land grabbing in Fako sponsored that meeting. There is nothing hidden. They want to spoil the Fako chief’s conference; let them go ahead.

When are you going to handover to the new president?

I had said we were going to have elections in September after the reorganisation of the various sub-divisional chiefs’ conferences in Fako. But if they decide to keep the team that was elected in Muyuka, let them go ahead. My mandate actually ended in March and I kept telling this people of Muyuka to call a meeting for us to handover. They said they had no money to call a meeting at that time. And so, they asked me to continue. Now, because of the land matter, and because I refused to follow them to Yaounde to stop the minister from suspending land surrenders in Fako, they became angry and said I must leave. People in Buea sponsored the meeting to kick me out. No problem! I like it that way. I’m even tired of heading a group of people who are disorganised. We expected Limbe, Tiko, and Buea to reorganise before the divisional elections, given that Muyuka had already been organised. But that programme has not been respected. The person they elected in Muyuka should go ahead and let’s see how they work.

It is alleged that you were given FCFA 1 million by Tiku Tambe to boycott the Yaounde outing of your peers. Can you confirm this?

I don’t even know Tiku Tambe. I’ve only head the name. Those are useless rumours intended to paint me black. I did not go to Yaounde because I was told that a CONAC (the National Anti-Corruption Commission) team was here at the CDC Head Office in Bota and I was called to come and give evidence relative to what I know about the land situation in Fako. I could not have left CONAC on August 7 to go to Yaounde to see the minister when I knew fully well that the minister had already signed an arête suspending land surrenders in Fako.

Many hold that you have taken a hard stance because you don’t have the opportunity to sell land.

I can’t sell land. I am the leader of the BLCC (Bakweri Land Claims Committee) that went to the African Court on Human and People’s Rights in Banjul to fight for the ancestral lands of Fako to be given back to the Fako people when they started privatizing the CDC. We said the government cannot privatise CDC when the land belongs to the Bakweri people. How can I be fighting for Bakweri land and be happy that people are selling the same land I have been fighting for? The chiefs have been misled and cannot continue to sell the patrimony of the Bakweri people. Tomorrow, their children will lack land on which to settle.

You want to name some of the administrators you said sponsored the meeting in Muyuka?

I will not call the names, but I have been told that the administrators gave the go ahead for that meeting because they are also involved in the land grabbing. They want to push me out because I am telling the truth.

Will it be right to still address you as President of the Fako Chiefs Conference?

Whether they consider me as president or not, I had already told them that I am out. I’ll not want to stay on as President of a house that is not united. The Buea chiefs have created a problem. In fact, the problems we have in Fako today come from Buea. Buea chiefs have created a problem by selling land meant for Fako people. Buea chiefs have also destroyed the Fako Chiefs Conference.