Buea: Gendarmerie, police officers steal phone, other accessories from taxi driver at gunpoint

One element of the national gendarmerie and another of the police forces serving in Buea, South West Region of Cameroon, are under investigation for stealing a mobile phone and other accessories from a taxi driver.

The officers whose names MMI are yet to get disappeared with the items after an unsuccessful attempt to extort money from the taxi driver.

The gendarme officer had entered the taxi as a passenger and started harassing the driver.

As he resisted, the driver decided to take him to the legion office of the South West Gendarmerie Legion.

The officer realised the driver’s intent and jumped out of the taxi — disappearing with the driver’s phone, money, and ID card.

The phone was later found with a police officer who is now implicated in the matter.

“Ths taxi driver carried an element of the national gendarmerie who said he was going to CRTV in Buea around the Bokwango neighbourhood. But along the way, when other passengers in the vehicle alighted, the element of the gendarmerie began to harass the driver in question, requesting for money and threatening to impound the vehicle if money is not given. And that the driver in question should provide all the car documents,” a source said.

According to our source,”the driver sensed that something was wrong and decided to head to the ‘Legion’ (South West Gendarmerie Headquarters). As he initiated a bend onto the ‘Legion’ premises, the gendarme jumped out of the vehicle, collecting the driver’s phone with the sum of 40000 and a national identity card and escaped.”

Unfortunately for the gendarme, “his beret fell. The matter is now before the Gendarmerie.”

Police officer stole the telephone

A few days after MMI learnt, the taxi driver’s phone was found with the police officer.

The officer was caught with the phone while trying to alter the settings in a repairer’s shop.

“A phone repairer at Clerk’s quarter was approached by a police officer and requested for it to be flashed…when the repairer asked if he had a Google account he (police) could not provide the information required.The repairer declined and rather offered to send him to a more experienced repairer.”

According to information relayed by the driver, an individual at the repairer’s shop recognized the phone and immediately notified the owner.

“He was able to notify the taxi driver, and police arrived at the scene immediately. When the suspected officer was nabbed, he said he got the phone from the gendarme officer, and that’s how his partner in crime was traced.”

The two officers of the law are under investigation Tambe Tiku, South West regional head of the National Human Rights Commission intervened.

By David Atangana