Photos of DO Fonya's Funeral, Part I

Six Bakassi Dead Buried Without Decorations - Killers Remain Unknown

By Innocent Timbong and Solomon Tembang

Monday, 23 June 2008

The six Cameroonian patriots savagely assassinated in Bakassi recently were given military honours in Limbe last Friday 20 June, but with no posthumous decorations. The official funeral took place at the Manga Williams Avenue in Limbe. Though the ceremony was replete with pomp, grandeur and solemnity, the departed civil and military personnel were sent to their final repose undecorated, the same fate, which befell the 21 soldiers assassinated in Bakassi last year by yet to be identified assassins. The non-decoration of the fallen Cameroonians raised eyebrows because the Commander of the Delta Force, Colonel Hypolite Ebaka and the SDO for Ndian Division Irénée Ngalim Ngong elevated the assassinated to the realm of virtual martyrs of the nation, with a litany of praises during the eulogies. “Those who die for the nation, their names are engrained in gold” according to Hypolite Ebaka. “Honour a child fallen in battle, Cameroon has lost a dynamic, competent high and extra-ordinary civil administrator” , Irénée Ngalim sang on the assassinated Bakassi DO, Felix Morfaw. The Ndian SDO recounted the circumstances of their death. He said on 9 June, late Felix Morfaw, the D.O. for Kombo Abedimo in the heart of Bakassi headed a special mission to investigate rumours of an impending attack on the Cameroonians in Akwa. The DO was accompanied by 8 military personnel. When they arrived at Mission Fishing Port, they were surprised by unidentified assailant who opened fire on them. The DO and five others were ruthlessly assassinated, while three officials whose identities, fate and whereabouts, have not yet been officially disclosed dived into the sea. The DO died alongside, Battalion Commander, Major Charles Mongou who had put in 24 years in service, Ajudant Chef Jean Paul Nzie, head of the Bakassi military intelligence unit who had put in 21 years in service, Ajudant Joseph Bassoklog, Gendarme Brigade Commander, Sergeant Chef Jean Obam Essiane and Eleve Gendarme Charles Nadyo Djiekombe, 24, who had put in only one year in service. They were killed, their bodies dumped in mangroves, their boat and ammunitions taken away, Irénée revealed. The bodies were only discovered nine days later. The final journey for the deceased began early in the Limbe Provincial Hospital Mortuary, where the corpses were removed and laid in state amidst top civil administrative and military brass, the coffin draped in national colours and adorned with wreaths from the Ministry of Defense. The funeral cortege proceeded to the Limbe Down Beach ceremonial grounds where they were given full military honours before departure for their different eternal routes. The ceremony was attended by the P.M.`s chief of cabinet Paul Meoto Njie, Jean Baptist Bokam, Secretary of State for Defence, and Emmanuel Edou, Minister Delegate at Ministry Of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, MINATD, in Charge of Decentralisation and Collectives. The ceremony was also attended by South West Governor, Louis Eyeya Zanga, Fako SDO, Bernard Okalia Bilai, and the D.O. for Limbe Central, Peter Itoe Mbongo. Nigerian Hostility The Ndian SDO Irénée Ngalim told pressmen after the occasion that the killers have not yet been identified. He continued that the predominant Nigerian population of Nigerians resident in Bakassi, were hostile to the Cameroon administration and so the enemy was difficult to trace because investigations were marred by the non-cooperation of the inhabitants. Things were made worse by the enclave nature of the area, Ngalim regretted. He said with the ultimate opening up and tarring of the roads in the region, security would be restored. However, the current barbaric attack had not derailed the complete handing over of the disputed Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon on 14 August 2008, the SDO said. He equally revealed that the killers remained unknown and prior to the shooting, many Nigerian inhabitants of the zone had surreptitiously moved out. Many observers have drawn similarity with the earlier Bakassi killing. In both, the killers remain unidentified. During the last killing, a senior military official, Major Metiege Ebong was killed and in the second, Major Charles Mongou suffered the same fate. No Reprisal Attacks On Nigerian Citizens Meanwhile government has disputed Nigerian media reports that Nigerians were killed by Cameroon gendarmes last week, to avenge the Bakassi killings, saying the North Bakassi zone was already deserted when Cameroonian security forces arrived there. Minister of Justice, Amodou Ali, said this at the 22nd session of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission meeting organised by the National Boundary Commission in Abuja last Thursday, where he gave the assurance that the Cameroon government has taken measures to provide more security for the zone. According to Ali, three of the nine officers escaped and alerted the authorities who moved into the fishing village to intervene and found it deserted. “I can assure you that in that fishing village nobody was found; even if there was anybody there, they fled the place, so you cannot extend reprisals on people who do not exist”, Ali said. He added that there was an improvement in the living conditions of the residents of the Bakassi peninsula which has improved significantly through the provision of facilities provided by the Cameroonian Army. Ali, who is also the head of the Cameroon delegation, expressed appreciation that Nigeria was ready to honour the Green Tree Accord in compliance with the International Court of Justice’s ruling. UN Vows to End Boundary Dispute Meanwhile, during the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission the UN vowed to leave no stone unturned, in ensuring that all maritime and Land disputes, between Nigeria and Cameroon are solved peacefully. The Special Representative of the UN for West Africa and Chairman of Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, Said Djinnit, also commended the efforts made by the two governments to finalize the judgement of the International Court of Justice of 10 October 2002 and the Green tree agreement, as well as addressing outstanding issues including the transfer of authority of the ‘Zone’.