–Give keen look to happenings in Bimbia
By Noela EBOB BISONG
HRH Epupa Samuel Ekum, traditional ruler of Dikolo Chiefdom in Bimbia, has in a recent letter addressed to Fako Senior Divisional Officer SDO, entreated him to legalise the Bimbia Cultural and Development Association BICUDA, which he maintains is the lone platform by which the Bimbia people can come together to foster the development of their area. Citing a current wave of tension ongoing in Bimbia, fuelled by targeted media reports tarnishing the image of the people of Bimbia, the traditional authority questions that, “Is it a crime for the Bimbia people to have a developmental association as it is found everywhere?”
Chief Ekum, in the letter also raises that they (traditional rulers and elites) of Bimbia had mandated Njalla Quan Junior to spearhead the association, but that the idea wasn’t his and thus shouldn’t become a scapegoat, as it appears that the delay in the legalisation of BICUDA has a deeper undertone, unrelated to its objectives.
“We wish to draw your attention to the fact and undisputed that all this hate are a back drop and fall out of the Bimbia Slave Trade Saga involving a certain Gilgal Tours Company who has remained insultive, defiant, abusive to the people of Bimbia, termining them xenophobic and paying journalists to rain abuses on Bimbia and on the person of our Son Njalla Quan Jr, with the help of his personal collaborator the Divisional Officer for Limbe III who facilitates his ego at a conquest he began at Bona-Ngombe village with acquisition of huge hectares of land within the community forest and the administration remains silent”, Chief Ekum writes.
The traditional ruler furthers that, “I write because I have the impression that Bimbia and her people are being undermined and possibly have become the orphans of Fako Division where local Administrators (D.Os) incite hate amongst a local population for the achievement of their personal goals and where vendetta has become the order of the day, misinformation and disinformation have rendered a people hopeless with no support from the administration, where chiefs are locked up and must dance to the caprices of a Divisional officer and where personal interest supersedes the collective goal of a people to development.”
While maintaining that the people of Bimbia remain faithful to the administration, are peace loving, respecting the values of living together, Chief Ekum states that they however, “will not tolerate insults from someone who has no respect for the institutions of the state.”
Like Njalla Quan Junior few weeks ago, Chief Ekum also invites Fako SDO, Engelbert Viang Mekala to pay keen interest in the happenings unfolding in Limbe III.
The Bimbia Slave Trade site saga erupted early this year after business outfit, Gilgal Tours company failed to secure a 50-year Memorandum of Understanding to take charge of the management of the historic site. Having apparently side-lined locals from the initiative, the company failed to push through with the signing of the partnership and laying of the foundation stone, on the site viewed as sacred by Bimbia indigenes. The continuation of the story is now a current tense atmosphere reigning in the municipality especially between the elite and the local administration, animated by some media outfits. The high expectation now is the intervention of Fako SDO to address the issue.
