Douala City Mayor sends warning signals to issuers of fake building permits.

He sounded the warning Thursday August 3. This was during a press conference organised at the Douala Town Hall, located in Bonanjo.

The presser held hours after a joint visit made by the City Mayor and the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, of Wouri, Benjamin Mboutou, to the neighbourhood where a storey-building collapsed Sunday July 23 and claimed over 40 lives. 

The visit to the Mobil Guinness neighbourhood, it was revealed, was to ensure that "instructions given by the Housing and Urban Development Minister to demolish houses at risk of collapse is implemented firmly".

Before the visit, officials of the City Council had carried out investigations to sort out and vacate occupants from what the Director of the Municipal Police, Hervé Ambata, had termed “deathtraps in the form of houses". 

Speaking to pressmen, the City Mayor, Dr Roger Mbassa Ndine, said some 10 houses had been identified and demolitions were underway. He noted that as time goes on, the number will increase. 

He reassured the public that the reason for the measures taken is to prevent future incidents like that of Sunday July 23. 

"We lost 42 persons; that is too much at a time… we have the duty to save human lives and we must do so by all possible means. The houses we have identified have no building permits, the zone is not fit for such buildings, occupants of building to be demolished will have to look for new abodes," he said. 

Dr Mbassa Nadine frowned at Council officials who issue such fake building permits and/or land certificates.

"Once we discover that any council official is involved in such acts, we will have their salaries suspended. Of course, they will lose their jobs and we will engage judicial proceedings against them," he warned.

Preventive measures 

As preventive measures, the City Council has made public toll-free numbers for denizens to report sites of buildings at verge of collapse or that have been poorly constructed.

Three WhatsApp contacts, belonging to the three mobile telephone operators in the country were released. They are; Orange: 655 66 77 77; MTN: 680 48 80 48 and Camtel 621 37 18 18 and a green number, 8289. 

It was disclosed that when making a report, the denouncer, will have to indicate through a WhatsApp text, to any of the above contacts, accompanied by photos and directives to the site.

“We have put three Whatsapp contacts, through which we invite residents who witness buildings that are at risk of collapse, to tell us about these buildings, their locations and if necessary, take photos. We prefer that people send messages on Whatsapp with photos,” the City Mayor said.

“Next to that there is a toll-free number, 8289, for calls. You can make calls on the contact without having to pay a franc. We encourage the population to help us in the fight against urban disorder and unlawful construction of houses,” he continued