A land wrangling between the Etoug-Ebe Baptist Church, EBC, and the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Board, CBCHB, has been laid to rest.
The conflict that almost rocked the relationship between the two structures was recently resolved, thanks to prayers, mediation and a decision by the CBCHB “to surrender the disputed land to the church to build its complex…”
According to a series of correspondences on the matter that The Post procured from the CBC Headquarters in Bamenda, it took the collaboration of all the stakeholders to resolve the conflict that could tear CBC apart.
In a resolution dated November 5, 2014, addressed to the CBC Health Services and the EBC, the Head of the CBC General Council Committee, Joseph Chebonkeng, hailed the cooperation of the two structures and encouraged them to continue in the same spirit.
The Committee, however, observed that, “EBC harboured a lot of assumptions …unilaterally misread and misinterpreted by many minds across the board.”
Despite the observations, the Committee resolved that the EBC can begin work on the EBC Complex at their convenience subject to a number of pre-conditions.
The pre-conditions forwarded to EBC by the Committee, emanate from an October 27, 2014, CBCHB Executive meeting that held in Bamenda.
The pre-conditions compelled the EBC to: “temporarily relocate the patients’ toilets at Etoug-Ebe Baptist Health Centre to a closer site to be indicated by the EBHC before work begins. The EBC Complex should make provision for permanent patients’ toilets in conformity with the EBHC specifications, facing the fence among others.
A Supervisory Committee headed by the Yaounde Field Pastor and others was set up to ensure the implementation of the prescriptions.
In brief history on the acquisition of the Etoug-Ebe property which the CBCHB had submitted to the General Council Committee after their 2014 meeting, it was stated that, until 1980 when the CBC Church Youth Centre in Yaounde founded a piece of land at Etoug-Ebe, the CBC had no land in Yaounde.
Signatories of the document are the Chairman of the CBCHB, Dr. Jonah Wefuan, the Director of Health Services, Prof. Pius Tih Muffih and the Recording Secretary, Richard Nji.
It was narrated how one Gregory Akenji, the then Church Teacher, convinced members of an adhoc committee to give him the sum of FCFA 14.2 million for the purchase of the land.
“Of this amount, FCFA 5 million was from the CBC Youth Centre Church account. On arrival in Yaounde…a 4.796m2 of land was purchased for FCFA 13.426.000,” the document notes.
It was revealed that the Acting Chairman of the church, Peter Mabu, had written thanking the CBC and adding that “…all the money invested on the land will remain buried until it is exploited by the appropriate organs, especially the medical authority.”
The document further mentioned a detailed report by Berndt Lemke who “located the church building at the northwest end because it is the most visible part of the entire site.” It notes that the site and the entire area was a swamp.
In December 1983, the CBCHB took a decision to create a health centre on the land and on June 18, 1984, it was approved by the Ministry of Public Health.
Construction work started in 1985 and in October of the same year, workers were deployed and the health centre went operational.
Many adhoc committees were set up to discuss services and land use. “It was discussed and accepted that the Health Board will occupy the right flank of the compound, while the church occupies the left.
This would reduce conflicts among brethren in the Lord. For this to happen, the Health Board will have to help the church in relocating the Pastor’s house on the left hand side once the remaining strip of land is acquired from Mr. Mbock.
Once the main church is built, the health centre will then take over the old church for its services. This way, the right side of the compound will then fully be occupied by the health centre,” the two CBC organs had agreed earlier on.
To make the land useable, the document stated, in “March 1990, Abraham Chiamba, Jam and Tih worked extremely hard to get a road through the swamp,” costing FCFA 3.6 million paid completely by the CBCHB. Despite the road, the swamp remained a problem and in 1991, the church obtained permission from Government to reclaim the swamp at a fee of FCFA 254.250 per year, dues which the church paid and stopped in 1993.
One retired military officer, Elias Mbah, had invaded and occupied the swamp, planting crops and trees. To legitimately face him, the CBCHB paid FCFA 2. 669. 625 to the Government.
To acquire space to expand its services, the Health Board in March 2005, applied to EBC pointing at the old church building according to an earlier plan agreed upon. The church positively replied on March 31st granting that the health centre pay a token of FCFA 10 million.
After paying the amount and taking over the structure, the CBCHB went ahead and paid a compensation of FCFA 5 million to Mbah to get him out of the swamp.
The secured swamp was then fenced immediately and its filling with laterite by the Health Board started. It is reported that the Board spent close to FCFA 60 million, excluding other expenses, to reclaim the swamp.
“These developments were done cordially with the church’s moral and prayer support,” it was reported to the CBC General Council Committee.
Problems started when it was rumoured that the EBC was planning to break down the pastor’s house situated behind the health centre and to build the church complex without a meeting of the Compound Committee that was set up in 2009.
It was stated that the compound is clearly divided by the access road and the piece of land in question was reserved for health centre use.
The conflict started degenerating prompting a meeting at the behest of the Prime Minister, Philemon Yang, in his cabinet on March 27, 2012. Yang, who is a member and Christian of EBC reportedly, expressed surprise that a nice building like the parsonage was to be broken down.
After a follow-up meeting of January 2013, a Technical Committee was set up to study the concerns raised. Their findings were tabled to the PM’s Director of Cabinet, Paul Ghogomo, but unfortunately, the Compound Committee did not receive the report, thus plans for the use of the piece of land by EBC intensified, despite objection from the CBCHB with the demolition of the pastor’s house programmed for last October 15, 2014.
It was against these developments that CBCHB moved ahead, stopped the work and mounted guard around the pastor’s house. This move prompted another meeting at the PM’s Cabinet on October 22 before the final resolution of the CBC General Council Committee of November 5, 2014 setting conditions for EBC to start work on the complex. When The Post visited the church compound on November 20, the Pastor’s house was already demolished, even though, the conditions set for work to begin were still to be met by EBC.
