Misaje: Six Armed Bandits Rob 100 Travelers Of Over FCFA 3.5 Million, Cell phones In Broad Day

Some six armed bandits who were all Mbororos, made away with over 3.5 million and hundreds of cell phones seized from travelers on the Dumbu/Misaje road on Wednesday November 2015. This operation that took place in the morning at about 9 am in the morning lasted for close to two hours, stopping every vehicle or motorbike at a mounted road block and everybody ordered to lay flat on the ground with closed eyes while they search pockets and belongings.

Eyewitness report from this reporter who was a victim losing FCFA 9000 and two smart phones in the encounter states that, a road block was mounted at a C-bend around Morahaji hill few minutes drive from Dumbu Town with a big tree cut and thrown across the road. All the vehicles and commercial motorbike were stopped at gun point and passengers ushered to lay flat on the ground. Each time there was an approaching vehicle the leader of the gang would signal the other gang members saying, “Amigo, Amigo, Amigo, le tapi, le tapi.” When finally the approaching vehicle enters their lair, all passengers are asked out with accompanying orders in demand for money and phones while swinging the locally made guns and knives at their preys. The helpless victims emptied their pockets in to the waiting palms of these armed bandits. As the armed robbers looted they made fun of their victims thus, “You belong to which party, CPDM or SDF? You vote for Paul Biya or Fru Ndi? Are we not suffering out here on your behalf? Sensing danger if they identify with the ruling party an envoy dispatched to collect CPDM cards from candidates for reorganization in Dumbu told the bandits who were illiterates that he is SDF and those CPDM cards were SDF membership cards. Some victims were lucky to have their sim cards returned to them others lost the money, phones and sim/memory cards. When this reporter gave them a power bank, they inquired what it was when he said power bank. One exclaimed power!!! and gave back the power bank. The fellows were even cursing that the passengers are the cause of their suffering on their behalf. After two hours the armed bandits disappeared in to the bushes with no trace leaving the victims still lying on the ground.

Victims later boarded the vehicles and motorbikes for Misaje after sensing freedom, that is when the few security forces at the Gendarmerie showed up towards the scene and were told the armed robbers had taken off towards Bum SubDivision. The Divisional Officer for Misaje, Nkwenti Acha Gilbert alerted the Divisional Headquarter in Nkambe and before long, two military trucks were dispatched to track down the armed bandits. At Press time two persons were already identified as suspects. A commercial bike rider who was brutalized with the butt of a locally made gun identified one Jemelege a Fulani from Kichako village. In order to ascertain whether the said Jemelege was among the armed bandits as suspected, Security forces in plain cloths visited his compound at Kichako village pretending to look for some one else and casually asked of Jemelege’s where about and his wives told them that he had left very early that Wednesday morning for Misaje whereas in Misaje he was no where to be found and his phone number was not going throw. Jemelege later turnup at the Gendarmerie Brigade Misaje and clear himself of the allegation. Focus has been tilted on one other suspect named Buba in Mungong. Kichako village is noted for hosting cattle rustlers and now a new phenomenon is creeping up in the form of armed robbery. Security promises to stay on the alert putting up a 24/24 surveillance to track him and his gang down. Four day after typical of Cameroonian security forces, they reluctant to continue the search claiming that there is no fuel and nobody is opting to borne the cost of fuel in spite the annual huge budget allocation for the military and security forces from taxpayers sweat.

 However there is an urgent need for more security personnel to be sent to Misaje and in Dumbu frontier Police post, there are less than five ill equipped elements in Dumbu including the Commissioner with no vehicle or motorbike to start with. The Gendarmerie brigade in Misaje has four officers which includes the Commandant. Most often emergencies are carried out using commercial bikes with its inefficiencies. 

A data collected from some of the victims amongst those who lost money and phones

No	Name	Phones Stolen	Amount Stolen
1	Ignatius Nji	2 Smart Android phones	9.000frs
2	Abubakar Mejinyawa	1 android, 1 blackberry	undisclosed
3	Dabor	1 phone	1.000frs
4	Ngande Bernard	2 Smart phones	7.500frs
5	Bashiru	/////////////	3.500frs
6	Seidou Iyah	1 phone	75.000frs
7	Johnson Ndzi	1 phone	430.000frs
8	Mandegue Nkpanya	1 phone	580.000frs
9	Pillar Company	phones	1600.000frs
10	Alhadji Ameh	1 phone	120.000frs
11	Emmanuel Ndukong	1 phone	75000frs
	etc	etc	etc