Editorial: Despite Biya's injunction; Grabbing of CDC lands continues!.

One of President Biya’s ministers, Paul Atanga Nji of the Ministry of Territorial Administration, during the enthronement of the paramount chief of Limbe, had warned against encroachment into CDC land.

He had condemned cases where community land titles are registered under an individual’s name or the name of the traditional authority.

“We have realised that some of the chiefs have deliberately asked the administration to put land titles in their names, which is not correct. The lands belong to a community and the community is not one person,” Minister Paul Atanga Nji had cautioned.

The Secretary-General of the Bakwerri Land Claims Committee, BLCC, Barrister Ikomi Ngongi, is also on record to have noted that some unscrupulous individuals have been taking advantage of the current Anglophone crisis to illegally grab parcels of CDC land, under the pretext that such lands have been ceded to them by the government. 

He said the move is costing the agro-industrial giant huge economic losses.

“We even got the then Minister of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure, Jacqueline Koung, to sign a ministerial order suspending the CDC land surrender, but no one respected that order. We still find land being surrendered every day ..,” Barrister Ngongi lamented. 

In affirmation, the General Manager of the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, Franklin Ngoni Njie, on March 5, decried the encroachment and illegal possession of land belonging to the corporation in Tiko Subdivision.

According to the General Manager, the unknown individuals, who have taken possession of CDC land have also destroyed property belonging to the corporation.

He expressed his frustration during a visit to the site of a piece of land ceded to the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR, to construct a logistics base.

Speaking to the press during a visit to the area on Tuesday March 5, the CDC General Manager said: “On January 11, 2024, the Senior Divisional Officer (of Fako) informed us that we should take part in a site board commission meeting to identify a parcel of land of three hectares to host a BIR logistics base”. 

The piece of land, he disclosed, was eventually identified in Tiko Subdivision, around Ombe. Experts were immediately brought in to carry out demarcation and designation of the piece of land. Three hectares of land were eventually offered to the BIR to construct a logistics base.

The BIR authorities, Ngoni Njie recounted further, took possession of the land immediately and went ahead to bulldoze the three hectares that were designated for that purpose.

The speed of the land demarcation and possession, the GM said, was because of the urgency of the need for the land as laid out by the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO of Fako Division.

Thus, the visit of the General Manager and his team was a result of a hint he got on Thursday February 29, concerning some irregularities surrounding the land allocated to BIR.

He explained to reporters further that he made a report to the Legion Commander of the Gendarmerie for South West Region, to express the need for an investigation into the land surrendered to BIR, after he was hinted about the irregularities.

While the gendarmerie was carrying out their investigation, the GM said he came to the ground to do an internal assessment with his staff to see if there was any complacency. 

“...we cannot keep pointing fingers but have to see what the problem is and see where our responsibility may be called in, ” he added.

After a tour of the piece of land in question, Franklin Njie added, “...we have seen that beyond the three hectares that were identified and demarcated for the BIR logistics base, there has been an illegal felling of a good number of trees”.

"We want the perpetrators to face justice", Ngoni Njie added, explaining that "the destruction of more than 400 palm trees is a great loss to the State corporation", which is the second highest employer after the government.

He expressed the desire to see the perpetrators brought to book after the gendarmerie investigation.

“It is bad for the corporation when we lose this number of trees illegally because there is no basis for this destruction that has happened. We are hopeful that the gendarmerie will use its competence to identify the persons who are responsible for this happening and bring them to take their responsibility,” he said.

While the issue of the land is being investigated, local farmers could be seen clearing the area to plant corn. Most of the farmers claimed having no knowledge of who destroyed the palms or who authorised them to farm on the said piece of land. 

But are they not of great interest to the investigators, given that they can't be working on land without knowing the owners?

It is ridiculous and scandalous that the corporation, which is struggling to recover from the collateral damage caused by separatist fighters, should be having its young palms destroyed by supposedly "faceless" people.

It is not only near the BIR site that such destructions of palms are being carried out and land illegally sold to the highest bidders while members of the community where land is said to have been surrendered to, are without a piece.

Even some industries are springing up in land given to communities for residential buildings, while chunks of land surrendered by the corporation for residential buildings have been converted into farmlands, which is evidence that there is no more need for land for population expansion in Fako Division.

Cameroon certainly is not a lawless society and President Biya has said so over and over.  The Guardian Post, however, hopes the Gendarmerie Legion will carry out its investigation without delay so as not to defeat equity, for culprits to face the excruciating sword of justice to serve as a deterrent for others.