The Fon of Mankon, HRH Fru Asah Angwafo IV, has rejected a call made by the Fon of Koshin, HRH Ju Wilson, to banish the family of frontline separatist leader Lucas Ayaba Cho from Mankon.
The Fon of Koshin had accused Ayaba Cho of threatening his life several times and causing the kidnapping and forced displacement of many Fons from the crisis-hit North West Region of Cameroon.
The call for banishment came on January 10, when Fon Ju Wilson of Koshin, a village in Menchum Division, North West, firmly criticized Ayaba Cho in a televised message.
“I wish I was the Fon of Mankon, your family, Ayaba Cho, would have been banished from the entire Mankon land. And I am pleading and calling on the Fon of Mankon to do something to Ayaba Cho’s family,” he said.
However, in response to this call, Fon Angwafo IV emphasised that Mankon is a cosmopolitan area that embraces everyone, and he cannot banish Ayaba Cho or his family.
He explained that such a decision goes against the inclusive and diverse nature of Mankon.
“It is really embarrassing that a colleague will be trying to offer lessons to me. We in the North West and the South West have suffered for more than seven years. People have died; properties have been destroyed,” Fon Angwafo IV stated in an interview with a Bamenda-based TV channel.
“We least expected that at any point in life, we will be faced with this type of crisis. We need to look for ways to get out of this crisis and I think that social media is not an avenue where we can pass a message to a colleague. I am embarrassed by a colleague giving me lessons on how to handle situations in Mankon.”
He added, “I think that the Fon of Koshin should have known that the cosmopolitan nature of Mankon is very sensitive where we cannot just sit and say that the Fon should banish a family from the village. I don’t know what he meant by that, but whoever guided him to make such utterances about Mankon, we, the Mankon people, are not very happy about it.”
Fon Angwafo IV also highlighted the challenges faced by traditional rulers in the North West amid the ongoing Anglophone Crisis.
He is one of a few traditional rulers in the North West who are still residing in their palaces amid separatist attacks on traditional rulers in the Anglophone Regions.
Since the armed conflict broke out in 2017, separatists have accused traditional rulers of leaning towards the government and so consider them “black legs”.
This has led to the killing of several traditional rulers in the North West and South West.
Separatists have also desecrated traditional palaces and caused the displacement of several traditional rulers from their villages.
Fon Angwafo IV, who inherited the Mankon throne from his father, Fon Angwafo III, in 2022, said he has also been threatened by Ambazonia groups but has remained committed to serving his people.
Ayaba Cho, a native of Mankon, leads the Ambazonia Governing Council from Norway, where he is based.
His group, the Ambazonia Defence Forces, has been implicated in human rights abuses during the ongoing conflict.
Cho has presided over many of these abuses, including the public execution of two civilians in Guzang, Batibo, in May last year by a group of ADF fighters.
The call for the separatist leader to be banished from his native area echoes similar incidents in the South West, where traditional rulers of Lebialem banished Christopher Anu, a prominent figure in the separatist struggle.
Chiefs in Buea, headquarters of the crisis-hit South West Region, also performed traditional rituals in the city last September, denouncing all separatists and their activities in the city.
Traditional rulers in the Anglophone Regions are under pressure from the government to publicly denounce separatists.
