Driver at Social Affairs Ministry, wife, 6 children rendered homeless by director of Centre d’Accueil Bepanda

The Director of the Juvenile Reception and Observation Centre of Bepanda (known in French as Centre d’Accueil et d’Observation pour Mineurs de Bépanda) has rendered homeless Ekane Ebwe and his family.

Located in the neighborhood of Bépanda – Omnisport in Douala, the Juvenile Reception and Observation Centre is a public specialized institution of the Ministry of Social Affairs that prevents and treats social maladjustment and juvenile delinquency.

Ekane Ebwe, a driver at the Douala-based Centre d’Accueil, his wife, and six children have been sleeping in the open after they were ejected from the service house.

The driver has called on the Minister of Social Affairs, the Prime Minister, and the President of the Republic to come to his aid.

Ekane Ebwe says he was transferred to Buea in the South West region but with his meager salary, displacing his kids and wife has not been possible. /
“I decided to go to Buea and leave them in Douala,” he said.

His greatest challenge, he says, became lodging his family as the Director of the Centre d’Accueil in Douala asked them to pack out of the house provided him.

Back in Buea where he was transferred, his issue remains lodging, as his new workstation in Buea makes no lodging provision for drivers.

With the difficult life and the ongoing Anglophone crisis, he says he could not meet up with the expectations and has been forced to have his family sleep in the open after receiving two quit notices.

The Director of the Centre d’Accueil in Douala, however, says the burden is not his to bear, noting that the driver was transferred one year, three months ago.

Even if the law provides accommodation for drivers working at his centre, he says, the concerned driver has been transferred to Buea and is no longer under his care.

This, he adds, means Ekane Ebwe should seek lodging from his hierarchy in Buea and not Douala.

Mimi Mefo Info