Ndepaya and Akwen villages in the in Eyumojock subdivision had a clash over land. The sub Divisional Officer (DO) of Eyumojock subdivision, Johnson Malafa Mofa has recently suspended investigations into the recent bloody clash between the youths of Akwen and Ndepaya villages of Eyumojock subdivision.
Malafa took the decision after a fact-finding mission he held to the belligerent villages and a crisis meeting he convened in his office subsequently. The youthful but sage Johnson Malafa succeeded to broker peace between the two villages and warned that any perpetrators of further acts of lawlessness will be punished according to the law in his office.
Johnson Malafa’s decision came in the wake of a peace talks he held in his office with the chiefs, notably security men and other representatives from both villages. The DO revealed that behind the unrest, was a controversial 1991 Subdivisional Land Consultative Board Decision which gave Ndepaya village the ownership rights over 97 percent of the disputed parcel of land and only 3 percent to Akwen.
Malafa Johnson noted that the Land Consultative Board fell short in its assignment by not delimiting the land in question. He said despite the fact that Akwen village was acting on some verbal instructions from some wildlife officials in Mamfe and Yaoundé to curb illegal timber exploitation in the area, the underlying factor in the crises remained the lapses in the Land Consultative Board Decision.
Furthermore, the DO said Ndepaya forest management committee is better placed to complain about the issue of illegal exploitation of the forest than Akwen because Ndepaya owned 97 percent of the forest by virtue of the LCB decision.
Malafa however concluded that his office is bound to respect the spirit and letter of the LCBD document and implement the delimitation process, unless new evidence is brought up to warrant a repeal of the decision. And even before the peace talks rounded-off at the DO’s office, a spokesperson for Akwen village hinted that Akwen will petition the authorities to revise the obnoxious LCB decision and organize fresh consultations. He added that in line with Ejagham traditional norms, Ndepaya and Akwen will in the future perform traditional rites in the presence of notables from neighbouring villages and pledge never to break the peace again in the clan.
The resolutions of the peace talks were as follows: (1) That the people of Akwen and Ndepaya committed themselves to peace while waiting for the implementation of the Land Consultative Board Decision. (2)That Akwen and Ndepaya commit themselves to maintain their existing farmlands and that there should not be any extension into the virgin forest without express permission from the competent administration authority. (3) That Ndepaya traditional council compensates Sampson Eta Mboh on whose farm the road to their sand-pit passes and (4) that a Boundary Commission be constituted to delimit the disputed land according to the clauses in the LCB decision, that is 97 percent for Ndepaya and 3 percent for Akwen respectively.
