South West Governor Bernard Okalia Bilai has promised war on criminals based in Kumba, Meme Division. The warning note was launched during an enlarged Regional Administrative and Security Coordination meeting (CCA/CCO) in Kumba from July 18 to 19, 2012. The Governor gave firm instructions to the local authorities, urging them to put hands on deck and apply appropriate measures to combat the unending crime wave in Kumba; especially in the notorious Kossala Quarters.
He said it was inconceivable that in a state of law, criminal gangs should take the Municipality hostage. "In as much as human right is concerned, people have the right to live in full liberty and not to be killed by criminal gangs. It is intolerable that in a city where we have security forces, a syndicate of armed robbers do operate with impunity even infront of the forces of law and order. As such, I am launching a war against criminal gangs today in Kumba," he hammered.
Okalia Bilai further stressed that the relatives, friends and neighbours of armed robbers and other criminals who commit man-slaughter and other heinous crimes, should know that the time for leisure and impunity is over. He said accomplices will face the law if they fail to denounce criminals.
In recent months, the city of Kumba has witnessed a multitude of armed robbery attacks orchestrated both by day and night. The population feels unsafe in taxis, on foot, in market places, at their jobsites and even in their homes. The most recurrent is man slaughter. A young man was slaughtered to death in broad day light in Fiango. Another individual was discovered stabbed and thrown in a stream behind a spot called "Beaucoup de Bars" at Buea Road. The most recent case happened last week, when a 40-year-old man was discovered dead, full of machete wounds on the head still in Kumba-Water at Buea Road. With such an alarming rate of insecurity, the population wonders aloud why the forces of law and order have not yet been able to bring these culprits to book.
