News of the arrest of some four alleged Ambazonian kidnappers in Bouba 3, Tombel sub division, broke out like wildlife earlier this week.
The story went that a group of men posing as Ambazonian fighters besieged the Bouba 3 locality, harassing people and collecting property. The high-point came when a young man, said to be the son of a notable in the village, was kidnapped and taken to an unknown destination.
According to the information, the population alerted the military, giving them hints on where the supposed kidnappers were. On Tuesday September 11, 2018, the military, in collaboration with the population, mounted a swift operation that ended with a siege around the premises of the said kidnappers.
According to the news, four individuals were arrested while others escaped. Besides rescuing the notable’s boy, some weapons, electronic gadgets, and people’s property were also recovered. The population in anger burnt down the house where the assailants were perpetrating their activities.
However, fleeing victims who witnessed the incident have been narrating a completely different story.
What Really Happened?
According to more than one witness who lived the ordeal, the kidnapped story seems to have masked the crux of the matter plaguing Bouba 3.
They indicated that Bouba 3, a locality cutting across Tombel, in the Southwest Region, and Njombe Penja, Moungo Division of Littoral Region, has for over five years been plagued with chieftaincy issue, with both the francophone and anglophone side of Bouba 3 claiming heirhood to the chiefdom governing them.
Reports say, the situation had gone so bad that both sides of the divide decided to use different tactics to fulfil their ego. Such tactics had led to the demise of many villagers on both sides.
Tuesday’s incident, according to our source, could just have been one of such ploys staged by the Francophone Bouba 3 faction to get rid of their Anglophone Bouba 3 brothers.
According to one of our sources, whose house was razed by the population from mainly the Francophone Bouba 3 side, they were going about their normal activities that fateful Tuesday when all of a sudden, the military besieged the area and began firing shots in the air and arresting people.
The source told Mimi Mefo Info they ran for their lives into the forest, only to return late in the night to find their houses and properties burnt down. That was what, according to him, caused the most if not, all of them to flee their village to safer zones.
Our sources equally indicated that the kidnapped story was cooked up to suit the agenda of those who perpetrated the Machiavelli act.
The information was corroborated by another source who said when he first ran to the Francophone Bouba 3 side, he was chased away, brandishing him as one of those Ambazonian kidnappers, a thing he had no idea about.
It should be noted that, while many houses have been razed to ashes in the Anglophone Bouba 3, none was touched in the Francophone side. This further gives more meaning to the narrative that the whole issue was staged by the Francophone Bouba 3 to get rid of those of the Anglophone side.
