Chief quizzed, 4 detained over land crisis

Chief Peter Esambi Ngoh II of Malende Village in the outskirts of Kumba, Meme Southwest Region, was on Monday, September 29, grilled for several hours at the Gendarmerie Brigade, Buea Road, Kumba, as investigations opened into the land dispute between his chiefdom and Mukonje village.

Four of his subjects; Alfred Ntungwe Bobga, Jackson Ambe, Joseph Ambang and Marcus Enow ended up behind bars, on allegations of destruction of property and invasion. Enow reportedly joined the others in detention in the early hours of September 30.

Chief Esambi Ngoh told The Post that his interrogation was based on a complaint against him and some of his subjects by Alexander Otto Abange, Chairman of the Mukonje Traditional Council, bordering on threat of life, destruction property in Mukonje Palace and the burning down of the national flag.

Chief Ngoh decried the detention of his subjects, describing it as premeditated, as there has been no proof of them committing any such act. He denied that any of his subjects set foot in Mukonje Palace in the wake of the crisis on September 15.

Chief Ngoh, he has vowed to support the prosecution of anybody who committed such an act in as much as he would also resort to necessary legal and administrative measures to seek justice.

The traditional ruler brandished a list of 38 persons whose land, he claimed, has been sold illegally. He explained that those detained are mainly victims of witch-hunting for leading the fight for justice.

Chief Ngoh presented to The Post another complaint signed by 25 persons addressed to the Minister of State Property and Land Tenure, in which the villagers are praying the Minister to withdraw or put to an end to the quest for a land certificate by a State Prosecutor and a Minister who have been given hectares of land in the disputed area.

Earlier, on September 29, Otto told The Post that the investigation against Chief Ngoh and others were ordered by the Meme administration to get an in-depth understanding of the problem between the two Balong communities.

He was speaking on the heels of allegations that it was he, Otto Abange, who bribed the gendarmes to intimidate Chief Peter Esambi Ngoh II, of Malende Chiefdom.

Otto said he had nothing to do with the summoning of Chief Ngoh, stating that the order was from the Meme administration, based on the recent misunderstanding between their communities.

He said that but for Chief Ngoh whom he knew was going to go back home, he could not ascertain the outcome of others involved in the land matter whom he met at the Gendarme office, same Monday.

Otto had earlier on told The Post by telephone on September 25, that there was no longer a problem between the two communities.

Before the summons, dated September 24, and signed by Captain Hamajouda, which, The Post learnt, was served Chief Ngoh on September 27, a meeting, reportedly held at the office of the Meme SDO, chaired by his 2nd Assistant, Nelson Yongkuma.

The meeting succeeded in causing the two brotherly chiefdoms to embrace each other before the invitation came by weekend. Meanwhile, Chief Gabriel Ebanja of Mukonje chiefdom is yet to make any public utterance, ever since the squabble erupted.

However, work is said to have resumed on the tracks of the FCFA 32 million worth Mokunje-Malende water project. The project was brought to a temporary halt in the climax of the land and boundary quarrels between the two villages.