Buea:Tole Vigilantes Appeal for Support to Confront Amba Fighters

Christopher Tambe Tiku (in suit),ELECAM  Board member, greeting  polling agent in Tole,Buea

By Christopher Ambe

Tole, in Buea subdivision is generally known as one of the bastions of Amba fighters in Fako Division.

The separatist fighters have, of late, inflicted a lot of pain on the population of that locality and its environs, which largely depend on subsistent farming and petty-trading.

St Joseph College Sasse,near Tole had to relocate to Tiko because of the atrocities of Amba-fighters and farmers were attacked and extorted.

But now determined to bring the Amba-imposed suffering to a stop, youth in Tole have formed a large vigilante group to identify and confront the separatist fighters. 

The vigilante group has already arrested and handed to the military some amba fighters, who were terrorizing the locality. 

But the group is poorly equipped and is in dire need of support to completely get rid of the armed separatists from the locality, Christopher Tambe Tiku, ELECAM Board member and Southwest Regional Secretary of the National Commission of Human Rights and Freedoms, was informed , Sunday,February 9 in Tole.

Tambe Tiku, who braved the odds to answer present in Tole, was there to   assess the conduct of last February 9 municipal and parliamentary elections.

Surprisingly, the population of Tole came out in their numbers to freely cast their votes.

 As voting was going on, the  Tole vigilante group positioned itself nearby to ensure that threats by separatists that they would disrupt the polls did not come to fruition.

When Tambe Tiku spotted the vigilantes who positioned themselves stationed about 100 metres from the ballot boxes, he looked worried (thinking they were separatists in disguise) and approached them in the company of armed gendarmes to know their motive.

But Mr.Tiku had a pleasant surprise when he learned the group was the Tole Vigilantes, who were there to ensure that no body dared disrupt the polls.

 The vigilantes briefed Mr. Tambe Tiku how they have been collaborating with Cameroon Military and Security forces to fish out amba fighters in their communities, so as to give peace and a return to normalcy a chance.

The ELECAM member and rights advocate hailed the group for doing just what is required of good citizens. 

 He immediately telephoned Southwest Governor Bernard Okalai Bilai, who reportedly promised his administration’s support to the vigilantes in the days ahead.

Christopher Tambe Tiku,ELECAM  Board member, greeting  polling agent in Tole,Buea

And, because of the beefed-up security in Tole by the forces of law and

order and the Tole vigilante group,life in the locality is fast returning to normal.