Fight against terrorism: UDP Chairman tackles MINAT boss over ultimatum to MTN, Orange.

El Hadj Lawan Bako’s outing is the content of an interview he granted to the press on Sunday April 14. The UDP Chairman used the outing to express a different opinion on the April 9 outing of Minister Atanga Nji Paul.

Atanga Nji had said unidentified SIM cards are aiding separatist fighters, whom he termed terrorists, to raise funds for their acts of atrocities, especially in the North West and South West Regions. Atanga Nji had said Boko Haram agents are doing same in the Far North Region.

Reacting to the MINAT boss’ claims, El Hadj Bochong Aku Lawan Bako, said the issue of unidentified SIM cards is global and cannot be a lasting solution to the crisis in the two English-speaking Regions.

“I think it is not an issue because the use of multiple SIM cards is a global issue and not specific to the North West and South West Regions,” the UDP Chairman, affectionately called the wiseman or the Anglophone political encyclopedia, stated.

He cited various cases of abductions in major towns such as Yaounde and Douala, where there is no crisis. This to him, shows that the pressure to identify all holders of SIM cards is a fruitless venture.

He argued that “giving an ultimatum to MTN and Orange, is just being overzealous, because such a task is that of the telephone regulatory authorities and that of the Directorate General of External Research, if there is a threat to national security”.

The UDP boss insisted that contrary to what the Minister of Territorial Administration stated, “separatists have gone beyond kidnapping for ransom. Those still engaging in such tactics are mainly thieves and conmen”.

Lawan Bako told reporters that separatist fighters are rather mostly using Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, to “create problems for the military”. 

He quipped that President Biya must understand that those who created the situation in the crisis-hit English-speaking Regions can’t be the same people to rely on for solutions.

He cited the example of a telephone number 699120353, that called him, saying he wanted to inform him confidentially that there is a plan to kill him. 

“I checked the number and identified the owner as Grabriel Tongo. The next day, he called me and said he is a gendarmerie officer and would like to see me,” Lawan Bako recounted. 

He said when the said Tongo rang him again, he told him that no man can kill him and that whoever tries to kill him will die before him. The UDP Chairman said as at that time, he was with people in his Bamenda residence during the feast of Ramadan, praying for peace in Cameroon.

Time to review strategy

While sustaining that the approach of the MINAT boss to resolve the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, is unproductive, Lawan Bako revisited a plethora of measures taken years back by the MINAT boss, Atanga Nji; which measures he said yielded little or no fruits. 

He mentioned the ban on the use of dane guns throughout the North West and South West Regions, the ban on the sale of iron rods and cutlasses without authorisation and declarations of normalcy having returned to the two Regions among others.

The UDP Chairman was categorical that Minister Atanga Nji Paul has ran out of ideas on how to resolve the crisis in the North West and South West Regions. He thus urged President Biya, to no longer rely on the MINAT boss for a way out of the Anglophone crisis.