Time for Biya to stop grabbing, encroachment on CDC land!.

A typical case is in a village in Mutengene, called Esuka, where media reports have quoted the CDC management as complaining that while national attention was zoomed on President Biya’s triumphant return to the country last Thursday, land-grabbers embarked on destroying prime CDC palm trees at the Esuke Section of the Bota Palm Estate, along the Mutengene-Limbe road.

According to State-run daily, Cameroon Tribune, and other media organs, the criminal destruction “…occurred early Thursday, August 20, 2026, when a group, claiming to represent the Mutengene Muslim Community, entered the plantation and began felling palm trees”.

The act was led by 15 chainsaw operators, most of them from Douala, according to eyewitness accounts. CDC workers narrated that chainsaw operators in Mutengene approached by the perpetrators, rejected destroying the palms for fear of criminal implications.

“The group is said to be claiming about 44 hectares of land at the Esuke and Ndongo sections for the construction of a mosque and other facilities,” it was said. 

CDC General Manager, Franklin Ngoni Njie, told reporters that the destruction affected 52 young oil palm trees, noting that under the Prime Ministerial Decree of February 25, 2023, compensation is pegged at 5,000 FCFA per tree. He said the monetary value is secondary to the human cost. 

“In this particular area, felling these hectares of land, about 58 families will be affected. The real CDC is the plantation, and plantations in areas like this have become even more important today because there are certain areas of CDC which are not 100% accessible,” he said. 

The GM warned that felling the palm trees threatens government’s efforts to revive the agro-industrial giant. 

“When we face a situation like this- where young palm trees in their prime production age are being felled, it is life-threatening. It is the best way to frustrate all government efforts to revamp the CDC,” the GM added.

He expressed regrets that such an action came at a time the corporation is just from putting up a mini mill in Moliwe, “because the palm fruits that the mill is supposed to process come from the area that is under destruction”.

The GM further explained to reporters that: “First of all, the palms you see were planted in 2016. They are at their prime and this is a very high yielding area. The yield per hectare here is extremely high.” 

He added that he had received several disclaimers from the recognised Chief of Muslim Community in Mutengene, who stated that the person claiming leadership is not a Chief and that “a meeting had been held with the former Fako Senior Divisional Officer, SDO; where it was ruled they had no right to request for land on the said area.”

He added that: “The Head of State had suspended all land transaction in Fako and CDC”. Despite that, the man stilled encroached into CDC land, claiming to be leader of the ‘Muslim community.’

Notwithstanding, the CDC General Manager has maintained that the corporation will continue to engage authorities to protect its estates and the livelihoods of thousands of workers who depend on CDC for survival.

The damaged   has sparked concerns, with some commentators saying those destroying the palm trees with hidden support in the Region are inadvertently working on the devilish agenda of separatist fighters to cripple the CDC, which has been their target, since the Anglophone conflict erupted in 2017.

The million-dollar question is and remains: How can somebody say 44 hectares of prime crops were surrendered to the scanty Muslim community in Mutengene, when they have a mosque, built on former CDC land near Etokoe Sports Complex in the same town?

Why should such impunity continue in broad day light, when on September 22, 2020, the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, on “very high instruction of the Head of State,” to the Minister of Land Tenure, suspended all land transaction in Fako and an end to retrocession of land from the CDC?

Isn’t it the same scammer who Cameroon Tribune reported in January last year that he destroyed 604 palms in 4.2 hectares of land in Ndongo area, claiming to be representing the Muslim community in Mutengene?  

Why has the suspect not been arrested, if he is not acting with the complicity of Divisional and Regional authorities, lurking behind to get their own share of the land?

Is the man involved in the destruction even a Muslim leader? Even if Muslims genuinely needed land, should it be given to an individual whom the CDC General Manager has said is brandishing “allocation letters,” and as The Guardian Post has observed, offering plots from 500,000 FCFA, to non-Muslims?

It is not only CDC land that is being grabbed with impunity in Fako Division. There is the notorious case of an imaginary village in Mutengene- a Second-Class Chiefdom called Bonganjo. A Ministry of Territorial Administration, MINAT Commission had ruled that no such village exists or had ever existed in Mutengene.

But a certain individual, with xenophobic intent, continues to use bulldozers to destroy farms of people, mostly from the North West Region, in Esuke village, which he renamed Bonganjo.

Several complaints have been made by over 450 affected farmers but he continues his destruction unabated. This is happening, despite government officials, especially the Minister of Territorial Administration, persistently and consistently insisting on “respect of republican institutions”.

There is no qualm that the Bonganjo and fake Muslim shameful episodes contravene the law. They have not respected the warning of MINAT not to seize CDC land or surrender it to any individual.

The fake Muslim leader and Chief of non-existing Bonganjo village and their accomplices should be investigated, exposed and tried for spurning “Very high instructions of the Head of State,” Paul Biya.

It's time for President Biya himself to step in. They have ignored MINAT, ridiculed "Very high instructions" and should be made to face the sword of justice, as proof that Cameroon is governed by the rule of law and promotes the policy of “living together”.

Failing to do that is to promote anarchy, whose perpetrator, as Minister Atanga Nji would say, deserves to be crushed in the “molinex” of justice.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3888 of Monday August 24, 2026