Idabato DO Regains Freedom After Five Months in Captivity

The Divisional Officer of Idabato, in Ndian Division, Ewane Roland, has regained freedom after spending more than five months in captivity.

News of his freedom surfaced on media platforms on the night of Monday, March 17, suggesting that he was in the safe company of Rapid Intervention Battalion forces at their Jabane base in the Bakassi Peninsula.

Mimi Mefo Info (MMI) cannot confirm whether the BIR freed the DO or if the captors released them.

On March 17, 2025, 167 days passed since his kidnapping with Etongo Ismael, an Idabato Municipal Council worker.

The government blamed armed pirates from Nigeria, but the kidnappers have since, October 1, remained undercover and have not revealed themselves or the intentions behind the kidnap.

Also, it is yet unclear if Mr Etongo has also regained his freedom alongside the DO.

Their kidnapping remained complex. Pirates broke into their residences at Idabato, a maritime community in Cameroon’s Ndian Division, which is part of the Bakassi Peninsula, and took them.

The Divisional Officer’s family reported that the pirates had demanded an exorbitant ransom of FCFA 1.9 billion a few weeks after the kidnapping.

They reportedly made a series of other demands as well, including the release of some pirates captured and jailed in Cameroonian prisons.

But whether these demands were met before the Divisional Officer was freed, remains uncertain.

Publicly, the government had appeared indifferent about the kidnapping and the pirates’ demands until one month later, on November 17, when the Minister of Communication, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, said the administration was doing everything possible to get the DO released.