By Njodzeka Danhatu
Mami Grace Etondi Molua has been farming on a piece of land at Ewonda village, located in the Bonavada area in Buea, all her life.
In 1989, she got married in Ewonda at age 18 and started farming on the land her husband inherited from his father.
According to the mother of four, she has been able to feed and educate her children thanks to the parcel of land.
The land, which is currently under dispute, is where the 53-year-old earns a living.
But she is now worried that her land is about to be taken away from her.
That is because one man, Paul Tonga, who is reportedly backed by some top regional administrators, managed to secure a land title over her land and that of dozens of other natives of Ewonda and is claiming ownership of this land under the guise of a newly created village called Lower Ewonda.
However, Mami Grace is not the only person in Ewonda protesting against what they call a land grab by Paul Tonga and a few others.
Her plot is just part of the over 80-hectare piece of land.
“There has never been two Ewondas since I entered this village,” she said.
“I feel very bad because it is from there that I raise all my children,“ she added.
Just like Mami Grace, Mola Joseph Mokake says the piece of land under dispute is their ancestral land.
“Our great-grandfathers have been living and farming there for more than 300 years,” he says.
Mokake, now in his 70s, says he has been farming with his parent on that land since the 1960s.
“Everyone in this village has a piece of land down there. That land is where we get our subsistence. It belongs to our children and the future generations,” he added.
Land Title Suspended
The land under dispute is Ewonda, but the man claiming it says it is Lower Ewonda. Lower Ewonda came into existence through an administrative creation in 2021 with Paul Tonga as its chief.
Following the creation of the village, the new Chief secured a land certificate afterwards following a regional order by the Governor of the South West Region, Bernard Okalia Bilai.
The land title was, however, challenged by the people of Ewonda, who, through their lawyers, said the village is fake.
Owing to the petition tabled before the Minister of State Properties, Surveys and Land Tenure, Henry Eyebe Ayisi, the land title given to Paul Tonga was suspended.
According to many people in the village, Tonga had no legality to secure the land title following the 1972 ordinance and, as such, some land titles came bearing the names of people who have reportedly died.
With the land title, Paul Tonga has bulldozed the 80-hectare piece of land, claiming it is part of his newly created village of Lower Ewonda.
The people of Ewonda are complaining that a bulldozer he sponsored has destroyed their farms containing ancestral shrines, graves, bananas, corn, yams and palms, among other things.
Minister’s Inquiry Commission Fine-tunes Solutions
On Friday, May 9, a delegation from Yaoundé dispatched the Minister of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure to investigate the issue, was in Buea.
At the conference room of the Regional Delegation of State property, Surveys and Land Tenure, the disputing parties presented themselves.
However, Chief Paul Tonga was only represented by his lawyer, Barrister Rene Agbor, and the chairman of the Lower Ewonda Traditional Council.
There, the commission listened to both parties as they presented points supported by documents.
After a three-hour session, the commission left the office and went to the disputed land.
At the site, the commission, led by the Regional Delegate of MINDCAF, partially viewed the land.
The village showed their pieces of land being claimed by the said chief of Lower Ewonda.
The Regional Delegate assured them a surveyor was going to come and inspect the various portions of land for them to also evaluate the documents and ascertain ownership.
However, he told them that the decision rests on the Minister.
Lower Ewonda Defends Land Title
During the meeting, the counsel for Lower Ewonda said the disgruntled Ewonda natives had no case, as the dispute was about Lower Ewonda, and not Ewonda.
Barrister Rene Agbor claimed due process was respected in securing the land title bequeathing the 80-hectare peice of land to Paul Tonga.
“Lower Ewonda is a village, not a family. It is surprising these multitudes are here saying their land,” Barrister Agbor argued.
This argument of respecting due process was counteracted by Barrister Nyonbadmia Evine, counsel for Ewonda people.
Referring to the 1963 West Cameroon gazette, he said Ewonda village has existed even before the German colonial times and Lower Ewonda has never been an existing village until 2021.
