Council Police, bike riders in bloody clash

Patrick Kum, a commercial motorbike (bendskin) rider in Buea, is presently being treated at the Laquantinine Hospital in Douala, after a clash with the Buea Council police.

Six other riders have been remanded in custody at the Buea Central Police station and their bikes impounded following the incident that occurred on Wednesday, October 1, 2014.

According to one of the riders, Ignatius Mua; “We were at our park at Campaign Street Buea, one of the areas which the Council has carved out for us to be operating within, when the Council police swooped on us and wanted to confiscate our bikes on account that we have violated a Municipal Order.

Those whose bikes the Council police wanted to seize were not willing to relinquish them on grounds that they have not violated the Council order. To them, surrendering their bikes to the Council police meant they will have to pay FCFA 25,000 to the Council before reclaiming them.

“In the course of the tussle, a fight broke out. Some of our colleagues were seriously beaten by the Council police and one of them was rushed to the Laquantinie Hospital, where he is battling between life and death. As if that was not enough, the police were brought in by the Council and some of our colleagues were arrested and locked up,” Mua recounted.

One of the Council policemen, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Post that they were out to control the circulation of motorcycles in the municipality, because they have noticed that the bendskin riders were not respecting their limits as defined by the Council.

He said the bikes are causing a lot of traffic disorder on the President Biya ‘Boulevard’.

“After our control, we went back to the former Council premises, when a group of bike riders attacked us. We had to call in the police to solve the problem,” he stated.

It was the October 1 arrest that forced the bendskin riders to group themselves under the umbrella of “Buea Motorbike Riders Association” and staged a showdown on Friday, October 3.

For over an hour, traffic was stalled at Bongo Square as the motorcycle riders blocked the road demanding the release of their colleagues. It took the intervention of the Divisional Officer for Buea, Paul Wokam Kouam, the First Deputy Mayor of Buea, Emmanuel Motomby Mbome and elements of the forces of law and order, to bring the situation under control.

However, after the incident, the DO and the Deputy Mayor and representatives of the bike riders association had met in camera to seek a lasting solution to the problem.

According to Motomby Mbome, the Council police were on a raid on October 1and all the bike riders who were arrested were found on the Boulevard, carrying two persons each. To him, the Council and the bike riders are bound to work together because the denizens of the municipality need the bikes to transport them into withdrawn neighbourhoods. He pleaded with the riders to respect the areas that have been mapped out for them by the Council.