The Level 300 student of Biology of the Higher Teacher’s Training College, H.T.T.C of the University of Bamenda (UBa) by name Forghambe Sony Neghop who was shot by armed men last Sunday, May 14, 2021, is responding to treatment in a health facility in Bamenda after his leg was finally operated upon.
This was five days after the incident took place at the down quarter neighborhood in Bambili at about 7pm that fateful Sunday.
Sources close to him told us that after Sony was shot, he was taken to the Tubah District Hospital but there was no doctor to attend to him. With the help of the forces of law and order, Sony was later taken to the Mbingo Annex Hospital in Bamenda where a deposit of fifty thousand francs was demanded to commence treatment.
He had just 15,000 FCFA on him and it was thanks to those who accompanied him to the hospital that the money was completed.
He was treated for some days and finally referred to another hospital whose name and location we are withholding for security reasons. It was there that the left leg that was shot by the bullet was operated on.
“The University of Bamenda gave three hundred thousand francs since the student had paid his insurance. One hundred and fifty thousand francs was collected by the hospital as settlement for the days he spent there. The other hospital where he was transferred to demanded for the sum of three hundred thousand francs before the operation could be performed on the leg. The leg was operated but the bullet was not removed and the doctors explained that, removing them was going to cause a lot of problems and that, what they did was adjust the bones and insert an iron to help in the healing process and that, the bullets will come out at the right time,” the source said.
The source we are not naming for security reasons further indicated that, ever since the operation was conducted, Sony has been having fever. He said he will be fine and that Sony is also worried about his education as he feared he may have to stay at home for sometime before regaining his left leg. The bullets passed through his hips to the left knee, he added.
It should be recall that on Sunday, May 14, 2021, Sony after attending lectures decided to go out with his bike in order to raise some money for feeding and other expenses.
On his way back home, Sony was shot at by yet to be identified individuals. He told those that came to his rescue that he saw three men but could not recognize any of them and that he never knew they had guns until when they opened fire on him. He said nothing was taken from him.
This has raised a lot of questions as to why Sony was targated or whether the shooters got the wrong person. Bike riders in Bambili have confided in us that they suspect the jackets imposed on them by the Tubah Council, whose wearing is being enforced, to be the reason why the young man was shot at. They said no one is allowed to work as a commercial biker in Bambili without the jackets, a move that has greatly been opposed by non-state armed groups.
Bambili is one the areas in the restive North West Region where separatist fighters are operating though their activities have seen a drop for some time now. It habours one of Cameroon’s Anglo-Saxon state universities whose growth has also been greatly hampered by the ongoing armed conflict.
