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The Senior Divisional Officer for Meme has reassured the population of Kumba, Chief Town of Meme Division, South West Region that, investigations have been opened on the kidnap incident that occurred today Tuesday, November 20, 2018.
Chamberlin Ntou’ou Ndong’s reassurance was made through the Meme Communication Delegate.
The SDO’s outing through the Communication Delegate comes as news of the allege kidnap of 25 secondary school students of Lords Bilingual Secondary School alongside the school principal and a teacher spread like bushfire across Kumba.
The Delegate noted that, the SDO received the information in the midst of a security meeting and without waste of time sent his close collaborators including; the DO of Kumba I Sub-Division, forces pf law and order to the scene.
The incident occurred at about midday. Residents around the Anglican neighbourhood where the school is located told us that, about ten gunmen stomed the school compound on motorbikes. The residents said the gunmen got to the school after jumping over the school fence.
The gunmen reportedly fired shots in the air to scare away the population that attended to intervene, we gathered.
Information we also gathered from another source who immediately visited the school compound have it that, a teacher on the campus confirmed about twelve students were carried away by the gunmen.
Reports also have it that, nearly all the form three students of the said school were allegedly whisked away by the gunmen.
Other residents of the area told us that the gunmen carried the students away from the school compound on foot while kicking them on their buttocks.
Other accounts have it that some of the students managed to escaped from the school compound after they spotted the gunmen.
The incident comes barely weeks after the Meme SDO signed a communique demanding parents to send their children to school.
In his communique, the SDO reassured parents of the safety of their kids as well as teachers off and on school campuses.
However, after the communique, several kidnap cases have been recorded on both students and school administrators.
On Saturday, November 17, two students of Higher Technical Teachers Training College, HTTTC Kumba were kidnapped and later released on Sunday as confirmed by the Meme SDO through the communication delegate.
Also, another school principal kidanpped last week was recently released after days in captivity.
The population has however blamed the situation of the absence of security forces on especially private school campuses.
The repeated kidnap cases according to Kumba inhabitants would discourage the little school turnout and relative effectiveness of classes that was ongoing in Kumba.
