Cameroon: Buea taxi drivers go on strike over killing of colleague

Taxi drivers in Buea, chief town of the South West Region of Cameroon  yesterday went on rampage over the killing of one of their colleague in the early hours of Tuesday. The drivers who halted circulation for close to five hours demanded that justice must be done to the person responsible for the act. According to reports, the driver whose name Cameron Concord only got as Motoh Franklin, parked his taxi around check point area in Buea  and went to the trunk to help an elderly passenger load her luggage into the car. But unfortunately for him, a private car which eye witnesses described as a red Toyota Avensis hit him from behind, lifting him to the air before smashing his body to the boot of his car.

The driver was quickly rushed to the Solidarity clinic found some few meters away from the incident where he was pronounced dead. Meantime, an eye witness who spoke to Cameroon Concord, noted that after the accident which occurred only meters from the Buea Mayor's residence took place, the driver of the car took out his phone and made a call after which a toll truck belonging to the council came and toll his vehicle to an unknown destination.

Upon returning to the scene of the incident some of the drivers questioned why the vehicle at fault was removed from the scene of the accident without the police officers carrying out investigations to ascertain who was at fault. This aroused tempers as the drivers swore that the vehicle must be brought back to the scene of accident for law enforcement officers to carry out their duties to determine the cause of the accident.

After interrupting traffic and taking Buea by hostage, the Mayor of the Buea Council, Ekema Partick Esunge accompanied by the Divisional Officer for Buea, Kouam Wokam Paul and law enforcement officers arrived at the scene and tried to calm the angry mob that had gathered at the scene. But their efforts all proved futile as the angry mob made up largely of other taxi drivers and bystanders demanded that the vehicle carried away be brought back.

The president of the National union of taxi drivers, SN CHAUTAC for  Buea, Mr Samuel, after all attempts could not bring his drivers to order as they mounted “human walls” on the road preventing circulation for hours.

After a long attempt to restore peace, the angry drivers decided to quite the roads but maintained that the council must bring back the car involved back to the scene of the accident.
According to one of the drivers, after any incident occurs police forces are expected to come to the scene and collect data before any of the cars leave the site. The driver who pleaded for anonymity noted that, after the accident occurred the mayor authorized the car to be removed without the police coming access the scene.

This he said has never happened before. While putting the blame on the door steps of the Mayor, Cameroon Concord questioned why the Mayor authorised only one car to be removed and that of the taxi driver abandoned at the scene?Was the culprit a personal relation to the Mayor?Was the Mayor taking the law into his own hands? This to him is injustice perpetuated on one of their colleagues.

Even though we of this publication cannot independently confirm the role played by Mayor Ekema Patrick Esunge in the act, sources close to the Mayor informed us that the municipal head was to address the situation publicly as soon as possible. At about 2PM, after spending close to four hours at the scene of the incident, the state counsel for Buea is reported to have descended to see things for herself. After all efforts to get the drivers to go back to work met with heavy resistance, the red Avensis was ferried back to the scene of the incident for police officers to collect data for what is popularly known in French as “constart”. The operation took place under the watchful eyes of the commissioner of the Buea central Police station and some elements from the Molyko Police station.