Patrick Ekema scolds Hon. Emilia Lifaka in public

The cracks on the walls of CPDM Fako III section seem to be getting wider and more clearly visible, this, because of the wrangling and animosity created by what has been described as the selective and discriminatory distribution of party cards in the Buea electoral district by some CPDM bigwigs.

The mayor of Buea, Patrick Esunge Ekema opened the can of worms when in an outing with the press last week he took on some “little-minded” CPDM party bigwigs whom he accused of trying to rip where they did not sow.

Mayor Ekema in his interview with the press scolded the Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon. Emilia Monjowa Lifaka, whom he accused of appropriating and truncating the party cards distribution exercise in the Buea municipality.

Ekema wondered aloud why a supposed baroness of the CPDM like hon. Lifaka, should organize an important party meeting within his municipality without informing him, worse of all, without inviting him.

Hear him: “Some people are trying to fragment the party to satisfy their selfish interests: I do not understand how Hon. Emilia Lifaka will organize such an important political meeting in my municipality without informing me….. I find that strange.…. I am not only a senior official of the CPDM in Buea but the one who shoulders the responsibilty for all party activities here.”

Mayor Ekema said the situation was all the more irksome because hon. Lifaka had to host a meeting to discuss important issues like the distribution of party cards, in her private residence.

“It is very strange that a meeting to talk on the distribution of party cards should be held in a private residence,” Ekema complained bitterly, wondering why even the YCPDM President of Fako 111, Motomby Mbome Emmanuel, who doubles as the 1st deputy mayor of the Buea Council, was also not invited to the meeting.

Patrick Ekema said it beats his imagination that people who lost elections should be the ones to take decisions for those who have tested and proven their popularity through the ballot box.

Though he did not give the names of the election losers he was referring to, commentators hastened to say Ekema was referring to hon. Emilia Lifaka.

For their part, analysts have wasted no time to extrapolate that by insinuating that Madam Lifaka did not win elections, Ekema fell short of saying that the CPDM party only rigged the elections in Buea.

Speaking with discernible rage, Ekema said he would withdraw the Fcfa 5 million pledge he earlier made to support the cards distribution project; that he would rather use the money to storm the CPDM Headquarters in Yaounde and obtain party cards that he would distribute to his supporters, afterall every body knows the road to the Central Committee in Yaounde.

“I will go there myself and buy cards that I will distribute to militants. I cannot be part of a set-up where people will pull their resources together for a project just for an individual to take all the credit.”

Ekema said he cannot condone the practice whereby some people want to ride on others backs to achieve their political ambitions. “I will not allow people to make political capital out of the efforts of others,” the mayor said in utter disappointment and annoyance.