Eric Tataw Tano: Garri Master feeding on ‘garri’ in US prison.

Tataw’s arrest was made public through a statement of the United States Attorney’s Office in the District of Maryland on April 25 this year. 

The statement was categorical that he was picked up and continues to remain in detention with the possibility of getting a 25-year jail term.

For many of those who lived the consistent online vociferous rhetoric of Eric Tataw and others who say they are victims of his anti-establishment campaign, he could just be at the start of a long process of paying for his alleged crimes.

The Garri Master whom others say is responsible for some killings, maiming and destruction in the two English-speaking Regions, continues to cool in detention, possibly feeding on garri, waiting for his final judgment.

In the statement that announced his arrest, the Head of the US Justice Department’s National Security Division, Sue J. Bai, who was among those who catalogued the accusations against Eric Tataw, contextualised his Garri Master concept.

Bai had explained in the statement that Eric Tataw used the phrase “Small Garri,” to refer to removing fingers or other small appendages and the phrase “Large Garri,” to refer to removing large limbs or killing people”.

The same US judiciary official was further quoted as having further explained that Eric Tataw referred to himself as ‘Garri Master,’ meaning, “Master of Mutilation”.

On account of material support, those who indicted Eric Tataw had indicated that he risks spending 15 years in jail. This is excluding the accusation of his threatening communication “to injure or kidnap” each count which carries a maximum of five years in jail.

What is happening to Eric Tataw?

Since his arrest, nothing has been heard from neither the accused nor his counsels. Cameroonians, especially residents of the North West and South West Regions where he is accused of grievous crimes, continue to ask what is happening.

For the most part, those versed with the US States judiciary, say it may still stake some time before Eric Tataw will have his day in court. 

While projecting the place of due diligence, Eric Tataw, who had positioned himself as a mover and shaker in the quest of separatists to secede the English-speaking Regions from the rest of the country, has in the last six months maintained a very low profile.

His social media handles and other online presence have gone dead. Nothing has also been heard of the chain of businesses he publicly boasted about running them in the US before his arrest.

Given what has befallen the tough-talking separatist activists, observers say, his prophesy of being the Garri Master has come to pass, with the detainee now feeding on actual garri, a common meal for prisoners.

To reference the statement of his arrest in which the meaning of his ‘garri concept’ was explained, some are saying while Eric Tataw is being blamed for killings and disfiguring of people, he may have been ‘garried’ differently. Some are now saying the affluence he portrayed on social media, and the provocative manner in which he did it, might've been the root cause of his current predicament.

Before his incarceration, several groups such as the Cameroon Association of Victims of Ambazonia Terrorism, CAVAT, had repeatedly cursed Tataw and his likes.

CAVAT and others repeatedly grouped persons whom they said were direct victims of Tataw’s violence-pruned outings on and off social media, to make a case for him to face the law.

Most of those who had the fingers or arms of their relatives chopped off, presumingly on the instructions of Garri Master, had never ceased praying and waiting for the day Eric Tataw will meet karma at his doorsteps.

What Eric Tataw accused of?

He is charged with providing material support to a conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap persons in Cameroon, the statement announcing his arrest had indicated.

The same note had briefed the public of the conclusion of a US federal grand jury that: “Eric Tataw and his co-conspirators masterminded and financially supported a vicious scheme to overthrow a foreign government. They resorted to an unthinkable level of violence while instilling fear in innocent victims to advance their political agenda”.

The Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Matthew Galeotti, had also been quoted as situating the accusations against Eric Tataw within the scope of the chaos in the English-speaking Regions.

“The defendant is alleged to have ordered horrific acts of violence, including severing limbs, against Cameroonian civilians in support of a violent secessionist movement,” Galeotti was cited as having said.

Peeping into horror pinned on Eric Tataw 

In April this year, US judiciary authorities in Maryland had mentioned a series of atrocities which it linked to Eric Tataw. 

It said it had documented that between September 2018 and December 2020, the accused raised over 63 million FCFA (110,000 US Dollars) to fund separatist activities.

The money, American authorities wrote in April, was used “to supply Amba Boys with firearms, ammunition, explosive materials, and other equipment for enforcing lockdown or ‘ghost-town’ orders and carrying out violent attacks”.

The Attorney of the District of Maryland also noted in its release that Eric Tataw marshalled attacks on the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, traditional rulers, civilians, schools and members of the defense and security forces.

It also indicated that he was part of a “fundraising campaign, known as the “National AK Campaign,” with goal “to arm each Amba Boy in Cameroon with an AK-47 rifle”. 

The release had further revealed that part of the money was sent to Cameroon through various means, including the use of intermediaries.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3624 of Friday November 14, 2025