Police disrupt SDF elective assembly

Police stormed the Social Democratic Front, SDF, Party Secretariat in Limbe, recently demanding that militants show proof of having been authorised by State authorities to meet, or, they (police) will disperse the meeting.

The tempers of militants flared and they were poised for a showdown, but the newly elected District Chair for Limbe, Gordon Zama, took time to calm their anger.

While Zama and some of his Exco members tried to explain to the policemen that they had deposited a request at the office of the Divisional Officer, DO, of Limbe 10 days earlier but could not get a reply, the officers insisted that they wanted to know if the DO had okayed the holding of the meeting.

The conference was aimed at reorganising the entire Victoria or Limbe I Electoral District of the party. Everything had gone on peacefully and Gordon Zama, former Secretary of the party, was elected District Chair before the police surged in.

Militants had settle down for a drink when the forces or law and order, who presented no mission warrant, popped in and caused disorder. “Can we see your authorisation?” they demanded.

“We placed a request at one at the Limbe I DO’s office some 10 days back, but up to the time we were to hold our meeting, the DO had not yet replied. So, given that the rule says when the DO does not respond within a period of 10 days, one can go on and hold the meeting; so we did.”

The police officers then ordered the SDF militants to vacate their Secretariat. Some militants stood their ground and refused to leave.

The situation degenerated into a tug-of-war as the officers swooped on one reporter, Davidson Maimo of Equinox TV, who they accused of taking pictures without their authorisation. Maimo, resultantly, lost his camera as the police officers seized him and requested that he erases all that he had recorded.

However, the SDF militants said, for the sake of peace, they decided to leave.

Meantime, Zama said he “was extremely happy” to have been elected District Chair. He said his major task was to revive the Limbe I SDF and build it to become, once more, the vibrant force that knew no defeat in any elections.

“What we intend to do now is to build the human and financial capital of the party in order to give it the force it deserves to thrust ahead,” he said.

But some militants argued that they were not aware that there was going to be an election. The acting District Chair attended but later stormed out of the conference accusing the organisers of mischief.

“My impression is that of one who has done a good job because, for the past two years, the SDF in Limbe has not really had any structure as such,” said the Regional Organising Secretary.

As to the claim that elections were not made known to the militants, the Regional Organising Secretary said that letters had been written to all Ward Chairs indicating that there was going to be an election. He said the claim was being propagated by those that had lost in the elections.

Zama takes over from Daniel Wole whoh as been acting in the interim after Pastor Lawson Tafon gave up following SDF’s failure to win the Limbe I Council during the September 30, 2013 elections.

Many party adherents observed that Tafon’s shattered dreams of becoming the next Mayor after the 2013 elections made him resign as Chairman of the Limbe SDF that once won the 1997 Municipal elections and ran the Council till 2002.

But since 2002, the SDF, except in the 2011 Presidential elections, has lost all other elections in Limbe. Zama said, with him at the helm now, the 2018 Council, Parliamentary and Presidential elections were already a victory for the SDF.