Wovia/Bongala vs Lower Bojongo land saga in Fako: Villages, Churches, school… petition minister to revisit decision.

Wovia and Bongala villages are battling over the land with the Wosingi and Womongo families of Lower Bonjongo village in Buea Subdivision.

The school, two churches, business centre and NGO are found on the land which is in Wovia and Bongala villages. The Wosingi and Womongo families of Lower Bonjongo village are also laying claim to the land.

The three-page petition, a copy of which The Guardian Post procured, was filed by Barrister Teku Abraham Njioro of the Freedom Law Firm in Limbe.

Writing on behalf of his clients, Teku said the minister needs to “withdraw and/or nullify” his decision on the disputed land.

The legal mind wrote as counsel for the Miracle Valley International Gospel Centre, Full Gospel Mission Cameroon, Centre for Destitute Children (CADECH), Wovia Village Community, Limbe Business College and Bongala Village Community.

The petition dated March 3, 2023, is copied the National Anti-Corruption Commission, CONAC; the SDO of Fako; the South West Regional and Fako Divisional Delegates of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure; the Fako Divisional Chief of Surveys, the Divisional Officers, DO of Buea and Limbe II and the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC.

The minister in his decision had ordered his collaborators to “finalise the Technical and Administrative elements in order to support the request of the Wosingi and Womongo families of Lower Bojongo village”.

Understanding the land dispute

The Wosingi and Womongo families of Lower Bojongo village in Buea Subdivision, it should be said, are claiming ownership over the disputed parcel of land, which they say is national land.

As detailed in the petition, the Wosingi and Womongo families had in 2020 made a demand for an authorisation to register (matriculate) their native land measuring 49ha 73a 70ca.

However, the petitioners stated that the minister gave his “consent under the mistaken believe that the said parcel of land which direct registration was solicited was a parcel of national land exploited and developed by the interested persons”.

They strongly maintained that the minister was “misled by the said application” and that the said land does not belong to the Wosingi and Womongo families.

“…the land in question is private property of the State under the leasehold agreement with CDC which land had been surrendered to our clients using the surrender procedure to parties contained in Ministerial order No. 000097/2.5MINUH/D200 of March 2003,” the petition clarified, adding that the “Wosingi and Womongo families are not juristic persons and are not the families that constitute the Lower Bojongo village”.

Land grabbers accused of setting confusion

The petitioners alleged that the promoters of what they described as “land grabbing exercise” are “individuals who for purposes of egoistic and selfish interest have entered into CDC leasehold fallow land with a caterpillar bulldozer in a bid to create layout”.

They added that the said individuals are doing so while using the minister’s “correspondence of 11th August 2020 to sell and dispose of the said land and making money for their self-aggrandizement”.

This supposed illegal activity, the petitioners warned, is causing the “breach of the piece” of their clients who regularly followed the procedure, got the approval of the Board of Directors of the CDC for the said portion of land to be surrendered.

The petitioners also said they had earmarked development strategies before the “aggressive encroachment with impunity from the purported Wosingi and Womongo families were carried out”.

To further buttress their points, the petitioners copied a letter addressed to the Wosingi and Womongo families by the CDC on April 8, 2021.

The letter clearly indicates that the said parcel of land which Wosingi and Womongo families are claiming falls within the corporation’s leasehold lands.

“The area which you claim to be part of your land is actually within the CDC leasehold land. This has been proven beyond reasonable doubt with the original leasehold maps and the existence of German pillars to indicate the limits between our leasehold land and the Lower Bojongo native land,” partly read a copy of the CDC letter addressed to the Wosingi and Womongo families as attached in the petition.

Petitioners finger SW Regional Delegate 

The petitioners accused the South West Regional Delegate of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure, Boris Meende Annuh, of having forwarded a report to the Minister on the land dispute which was not only “misleading but deceptive”.

They said when difficulties arose relating to the direct registration which was requested by Wosingi and Womongo families; dispute between their clients and interested individuals, the minister ordered an Ad hoc Commission that investigated the status of the said parcel of land.

The commission, they detailed, transmitted the report via letter June 7, 2022, through the SDO, including accompanying cadastral situation report made out and establish to that effect by the Divisional Surveys Service.

They reminded the minister that based on the conclusion of the Ad hoc commission, he had instructed the Fako Divisional Delegate of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure to continue with the procedure of “retrocession or surrender to our clients, up to the establishment of land certificate in strict respect of the regulations in force”.

They also regretted cacophony on the part of the minister, who, in another correspondence dated October 12, 2022, instructed the SDO of Fako to exceptionally set up a site board commission in charge of selecting a parcel of CDC land to be retroceded (surrendered) to the Wosingi and Womongo families. They however indicated that some land certificates which had been issued on the land in question were to be examined.

“We urge you to consider seriously the issue raised in this petition, come to the logical conclusion that you were misled into error by the Regional Delegate of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure to come up with this last instructions. We are urging you to withdraw and/or nullify same without much ado,” they stated.

“Our clients have expended a lot of money to assist in seeing that the procedure for the retrocession is completed leading to their obtaining land certificates as you instructed,” the lawyer noted, adding on behalf of interested parties that: “We conclude by submitting that our clients shall and severally claim damages in the sum of One Hundred and Fifty Million Francs (150 000 000) CFA”.

Regional Delegate fires back, says administrators at centre of confusion

Contacted on phone to react on the allegations contained in the petitioned, the South West Regional Delegate of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure, Boris Meende Annuh, said they were mere claims.

He said a commission from Yaounde had visited the site alongside CDC surveyors and it was declared that the said land is national land. He also said the CDC had never farmed on the land.

“But now there is an irony. Just above the said land, there was a land surrender given to Mokunda village. So they too are wondering that how can Mokunda village benefitted from land surrender above the national land. So there is a little polemics that we are trying to resolve now,” Meende Annuh explained.

He added that “at the moment, another commission is awaited on the site to determine the nature of the land”.

On if he is misleading the minister on what is happening on the disputed land, Meende Annuh said, there are mere claims, “but the facts are there. Nobody is deceiving anybody”.

He added that a joint commission of MIDCAF and CDC surveyors will visit the site and determine its nature.

“If it is CDC leasehold land, we will ask the Womongo and Wosingi families to leave but if it is a national land, the Womongo and Wosingi will stay,” he clarified.

The delegate explained that if it turns out to be a CDC leasehold land, the Wovia and Bongala villages will benefit but they will ensure the land is “shared equitably to the villagers and not for their own personal purposes [chiefs and other persons who are behind],” he noted.

Regional Delegate fingers administrators

Meende Annuh however hinted that the game being supposedly played is between surveyors but added that the truth will soon come out.  

He was blunt that there are some administrators within the region whom he refused to name who are pulling the strings from behind.

“They are some administrators who are the ones behind this affair. I don’t want to go detail. Now, they are using the Wovia and Bongala to grab land. I can prove it,” he authoritatively stated.

He said if the villagers of Bongala and Wovia are asked about what is happening, they will not be aware but for few persons including traditional council heads, notables and some elite.

 “They are working with the administration to grab land,” he stated categorically.

“We sit in our offices and they bring reports and we act based on reports that have been brought to us. But now, we have decided to send our own people to the field to know what is really happening on the ground,” he explained.

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Wovia and Bongala villages are battling over the land with the Wosingi and Womongo families of Lower Bonjongo village in Buea Subdivision.

The school, two churches, business centre and NGO are found on the land which is in Wovia and Bongala villages. The Wosingi and Womongo families of Lower Bonjongo village are also laying claim to the land.

The three-page petition, a copy of which The Guardian Post procured, was filed by Barrister Teku Abraham Njioro of the Freedom Law Firm in Limbe.

Writing on behalf of his clients, Teku said the minister needs to “withdraw and/or nullify” his decision on the disputed land.

The legal mind wrote as counsel for the Miracle Valley International Gospel Centre, Full Gospel Mission Cameroon, Centre for Destitute Children (CADECH), Wovia Village Community, Limbe Business College and Bongala Village Community.

The petition dated March 3, 2023, is copied the National Anti-Corruption Commission, CONAC; the SDO of Fako; the South West Regional and Fako Divisional Delegates of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure; the Fako Divisional Chief of Surveys, the Divisional Officers, DO of Buea and Limbe II and the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC.

The minister in his decision had ordered his collaborators to “finalise the Technical and Administrative elements in order to support the request of the Wosingi and Womongo families of Lower Bojongo village”.

Understanding the land dispute

The Wosingi and Womongo families of Lower Bojongo village in Buea Subdivision, it should be said, are claiming ownership over the disputed parcel of land, which they say is national land.

As detailed in the petition, the Wosingi and Womongo families had in 2020 made a demand for an authorisation to register (matriculate) their native land measuring 49ha 73a 70ca.

However, the petitioners stated that the minister gave his “consent under the mistaken believe that the said parcel of land which direct registration was solicited was a parcel of national land exploited and developed by the interested persons”.

They strongly maintained that the minister was “misled by the said application” and that the said land does not belong to the Wosingi and Womongo families.

“…the land in question is private property of the State under the leasehold agreement with CDC which land had been surrendered to our clients using the surrender procedure to parties contained in Ministerial order No. 000097/2.5MINUH/D200 of March 2003,” the petition clarified, adding that the “Wosingi and Womongo families are not juristic persons and are not the families that constitute the Lower Bojongo village”.

Land grabbers accused of setting confusion

The petitioners alleged that the promoters of what they described as “land grabbing exercise” are “individuals who for purposes of egoistic and selfish interest have entered into CDC leasehold fallow land with a caterpillar bulldozer in a bid to create layout”.

They added that the said individuals are doing so while using the minister’s “correspondence of 11th August 2020 to sell and dispose of the said land and making money for their self-aggrandizement”.

This supposed illegal activity, the petitioners warned, is causing the “breach of the piece” of their clients who regularly followed the procedure, got the approval of the Board of Directors of the CDC for the said portion of land to be surrendered.

The petitioners also said they had earmarked development strategies before the “aggressive encroachment with impunity from the purported Wosingi and Womongo families were carried out”.

To further buttress their points, the petitioners copied a letter addressed to the Wosingi and Womongo families by the CDC on April 8, 2021.

The letter clearly indicates that the said parcel of land which Wosingi and Womongo families are claiming falls within the corporation’s leasehold lands.

“The area which you claim to be part of your land is actually within the CDC leasehold land. This has been proven beyond reasonable doubt with the original leasehold maps and the existence of German pillars to indicate the limits between our leasehold land and the Lower Bojongo native land,” partly read a copy of the CDC letter addressed to the Wosingi and Womongo families as attached in the petition.

Petitioners finger SW Regional Delegate 

The petitioners accused the South West Regional Delegate of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure, Boris Meende Annuh, of having forwarded a report to the Minister on the land dispute which was not only “misleading but deceptive”.

They said when difficulties arose relating to the direct registration which was requested by Wosingi and Womongo families; dispute between their clients and interested individuals, the minister ordered an Ad hoc Commission that investigated the status of the said parcel of land.

The commission, they detailed, transmitted the report via letter June 7, 2022, through the SDO, including accompanying cadastral situation report made out and establish to that effect by the Divisional Surveys Service.

They reminded the minister that based on the conclusion of the Ad hoc commission, he had instructed the Fako Divisional Delegate of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure to continue with the procedure of “retrocession or surrender to our clients, up to the establishment of land certificate in strict respect of the regulations in force”.

They also regretted cacophony on the part of the minister, who, in another correspondence dated October 12, 2022, instructed the SDO of Fako to exceptionally set up a site board commission in charge of selecting a parcel of CDC land to be retroceded (surrendered) to the Wosingi and Womongo families. They however indicated that some land certificates which had been issued on the land in question were to be examined.

“We urge you to consider seriously the issue raised in this petition, come to the logical conclusion that you were misled into error by the Regional Delegate of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure to come up with this last instructions. We are urging you to withdraw and/or nullify same without much ado,” they stated.

“Our clients have expended a lot of money to assist in seeing that the procedure for the retrocession is completed leading to their obtaining land certificates as you instructed,” the lawyer noted, adding on behalf of interested parties that: “We conclude by submitting that our clients shall and severally claim damages in the sum of One Hundred and Fifty Million Francs (150 000 000) CFA”.

Regional Delegate fires back, says administrators at centre of confusion

Contacted on phone to react on the allegations contained in the petitioned, the South West Regional Delegate of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure, Boris Meende Annuh, said they were mere claims.

He said a commission from Yaounde had visited the site alongside CDC surveyors and it was declared that the said land is national land. He also said the CDC had never farmed on the land.

“But now there is an irony. Just above the said land, there was a land surrender given to Mokunda village. So they too are wondering that how can Mokunda village benefitted from land surrender above the national land. So there is a little polemics that we are trying to resolve now,” Meende Annuh explained.

He added that “at the moment, another commission is awaited on the site to determine the nature of the land”.

On if he is misleading the minister on what is happening on the disputed land, Meende Annuh said, there are mere claims, “but the facts are there. Nobody is deceiving anybody”.

He added that a joint commission of MIDCAF and CDC surveyors will visit the site and determine its nature.

“If it is CDC leasehold land, we will ask the Womongo and Wosingi families to leave but if it is a national land, the Womongo and Wosingi will stay,” he clarified.

The delegate explained that if it turns out to be a CDC leasehold land, the Wovia and Bongala villages will benefit but they will ensure the land is “shared equitably to the villagers and not for their own personal purposes [chiefs and other persons who are behind],” he noted.

Regional Delegate fingers administrators

Meende Annuh however hinted that the game being supposedly played is between surveyors but added that the truth will soon come out.  

He was blunt that there are some administrators within the region whom he refused to name who are pulling the strings from behind.

“They are some administrators who are the ones behind this affair. I don’t want to go detail. Now, they are using the Wovia and Bongala to grab land. I can prove it,” he authoritatively stated.

He said if the villagers of Bongala and Wovia are asked about what is happening, they will not be aware but for few persons including traditional council heads, notables and some elite.

 “They are working with the administration to grab land,” he stated categorically.

“We sit in our offices and they bring reports and we act based on reports that have been brought to us. But now, we have decided to send our own people to the field to know what is really happening on the ground,” he explained.