Buea: Policemen Enriching Themselves From The Population’s Labour

Information has it that some bars operating in the Buea municipality have fallen and are still victims of police extortion.

Speaking on anonymity, some workers say the action of extortion by police has been enacted as a regular tradition, that takes place almost every night.

With hopes of peaceful co-existence, the bars are obligated to pay these monies.

“If you don’t give them the money they request for, they threaten to close your bar, ” one said.

According to another source, the police sometimes take 1,000 FCFA from each bar, but other times, they request up to 5,000 FCFA for each bar they enter.

If the bar owner hesitates to pay, the police either chase away its customers or even arrests some of them as a way of scaring people from drinking in such spots.

The complaint by bar owners is one of many others. Students and drivers in the town of Buea have often raised similar concerns. Mass arrests, detention and torture, they say, is the order of the day, and can only be evaded by giving the security officers the money they seek.

Administrative authorities have often remained mute over such incidents.

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