Kumba : Bike Riders Say No To “Ghost Town”

Some 7,000 commercial motor riders in Kumba have vowed that there will be no more ghost town in Kumba on Mondays as proclaimed and enforced by the separatist groups in the North West and South West Regions. The motorbike riders stormed the streets of the city of Kumba, headquarters of Meme Division, on Saturday morning (13 July, 2019) protesting against the killing of one of theirs by suspected separatists fighters in Fiango (Kumba II Sub-Division). They decried that over 200 commercial motorbikes had been seized by members of suspected separatist groups in the town without any reaction from the riders.
According to one of the riders, Ngu Thomas, who spoke to C.T., suspected members of the group on Friday July 12, at about 9pm stopped one of the riders whose only nick name we got as “Fashion” and asked him to hand his bike to them.  The 19-year-old Fashion refused.  As he was struggling with them, one of the armed men pulled out a locally fabricated gun and shot the boy on his chest. He immediately fell and died and the assailants disappeared with the motorbike. Upon hearing the sad news the next morning, Saturday July 13 thousands of commercial motor riders went to the streets protesting and saying “enough –is –enough, no more ghost town in Kumba”.
Before going to the streets the bike riders had earlier conveyed the corpse of the deceased to the Kumba District hospital mortuary. When the Divisional Officer for Kumba III Sub-Division, Verkline Epolewane, who was out on her sporting activities heard the news that motorbike riders were protesting, she went to the streets in Mambanda headquarters of Kumba III and invited the commercial motorbike riders to her office for a brief meeting.  During the meeting which took place in front of her office, she pleaded with the riders to stop protesting and go back to their normal activities. Epolewane Verkline, also used the occasion to caution the riders to make sure they acquire genuine documents that will help them work.