Separatist ghost towns: Fako SDO, bans leisure activities on Mondays

By Daniel D.

The newly installed Senior Divisional Officer for Fako, Viang Mekala, has obliged people to work and open their businesses on Mondays, while banning leisure activities that have usually characterized the day.

In a release on February 17, which prescribes new directives aimed to fight against the separatists’ Monday ghost town phenomenon, he warned that the administration will not tolerate any leisure activities on Mondays because it is a working day.

The SDO stressed that any leisure activities on Mondays should be pushed to the weekends.

It is his own way of trying to fight Operation Monday ghost town in the Division.

Since the ongoing Anglophone Crisis started, Monday has been declared a ghost town day by separatist fighters as a form of civil disobedience.

On this day, business activities, schools, offices are closed and towns are deserted. As such, many people started programming leisure activities such as swimming, partying and “Njangi” on Monday.

The SDO is embarking on a fight his predecessor, Chaibou, tried and failed.

Even locally elected officials like the deceased Mayor of Buea, Ekema Patrick Esunge, did not succeed in eradicating Monday ghost towns, despite adopting radical measures that included sealing shops and offices that were locked on Mondays.

Persons who have ventured in the past to go against the imposed ghost towns have seen their business premises burnt down by suspected separatists.

To deter people from going out on Mondays, separatist fighters have continued to launch surprised attacks on civilians on Mondays.

Mimi Mefo Info