René Sadi visits Bakassi amidst rising insecurity

Rene Sadi, Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation has described Bakassi as “a place to visit, a place to know, and a place to discover. Bakassi is a great national symbol.”

Sadi made the remarks during his maiden visit to the Bakassi Peninsular. The two-day visit, from April 17 to 18, put the minister face to face with the realities prevailing at the peninsular area, ranging from the bad roads to the problems of insecurity in the area.

While on this visit, Sadi inaugurated Akwa Town Hall in Kombo Abedimo – a Town Hall offered by the government through the Special Council Support Fund for Mutual Assistance, FEICOM. The council chamber was constructed alongside four other structures to serve as residences for the Mayor, his two deputies and the council Treasurer.

Sadi said the structures in Kombo-Abedimo stand out as a clear indication of the unflinching political will of President Biya to give the Municipal Authorities in the Bakassi area adequate facilities to serve the people and the nation.

He urged the mayor and his collaborators to put the structures to proper use and asked them to take up full residence within their jurisdiction. To achieve the goals of development, Sadi said “decentralisation and municipalities need devoted and dedicated actors, namely mayors and assistants, ready to put in every effort in order to deliver the goods.” He said mayors are voted for the general, rather than personal interest.

“Bakassi will become the land all Cameroonians dream of, only if its municipal authorities take full advantage of the present decentralisation drive, and make good use of all the measures and instruments put in place by the state, in order to pull together the rich potentials of its councils, and achieve the desired development and progress,” Sadi said.

The minister advised mayors not to only depend on means and resources from the central government, “Municipal councils and their executives should become more creative, more active, more proactive, more ingenious and more dynamic in their quest and search for ways and means to mobilise and manage the existing resources, in their effort to achieve the development of their municipalities.”

Patrick Aboko Anki, Mayor of Kombo-Abedimo in an address said the newly constructed municipal structures in Kombo-Abedimo has come to add to existing ones.

“Today, Kombo-Abedimo is proud of a GTTC, GTC, health facilities, primary and nursery schools, a Women Empowerment Centre, modern security and other administrative structures, including the magnificent and imposing council chambers,” Aboko pointed out before asking for more from government.

Sadi consoles fire victims at Shell Creek Sadi used day two of his visit to comfort those who lost their houses and property to fire last December 26, 2015 in the locality of Shell Creek in Idabato sub-division.

He extended words of sympathy from President Biya to the fire victims, announcing that the Head of State has put FCFA 250 million at the disposal of the governor of the South West Region for the reconstruction of the village.

Amidst rapturous plaudits, Sadi assured those who lost their property to the fire that they will be compensated in due time.

Governor Okalia Bilai Bernard chimed in with the minister to add that the project to reconstruct the burnt homes will see the light of day soon, given that the regional delegates of Public Works and that of Urban Development and Housing are putting the necessary details together.

Mayors Aboko, Ntimi weep over rising insecurity In Kombo-Abedimo, just like in Idabato, there were cries of rising insecurity in the Peninsula. Mayor Aboko of Kombo-Abedimo told the minister that Mayors of the four councils in the Bakassi Peninsula still patronise commercial motorbikes given that they are yet to be supplied with service cars. Aboko, who doubles as President of the South West Mayors Association (UCCC) said insecurity is rising in the Peninsula.

He called for “the urgent creation of a military base at Idibayanga and the provision of intervention vehicles to the forces of law and order to check the rising insecurity along the Mundemba-Isangele-Akwa road with the most recent cases being the shooting to death of a driver of a contractor on February 16, 2015 and the attempted kidnapping of people along the Akwa-Mbemong road on April 7, 2015.”

Oliver Ntimi Akan, Mayor of Idabato re-echoed the same problems of insecurity as he received Sadi.

Soldiers in the area, particularly gendarmes, are said to ask for huge sums of money to provide security to municipal and legislative officials visiting Bakassi.

Though Sadi promised solutions to the problems raised, the mayor of Kombo-Abedimo insists that the Bakassi Peninsula requires a more effective administrative presence.

He called for “the recreation of the former Rio-Dey-Ray Division comprising the present four subdivisions that make up the peninsula; Isangele, Idabato, Kombo-Abedimo and Kombo-Itindi with headquarters at Isangele for an effective administrative presence in this very strategic zone.”

Boko Haram’s nearly 6-year-old Islamic uprising in northeast Nigeria that has killed thousands — a reported 10,000 just last year — and forced more than 1.5 million from their homes.