Cameroon: Security forces received praise from President Paul Biya for Bamenda actions -Issa Tchiroma

Communication Minister and Government Spokesman, Issa Tchiroma Bakary has revealed that “Forces of law and order who showcase courage, self-denial, patriotism and the sense of sacrifice have received encouragements from the Head of State for their action in order to restore public order and security in Bamenda.”

The revelation was made last December 10 during a press conference he granted in Yaounde to reiterate government’s position on the insurgency. President Biya’s encouragement is coming at the time many people are still wondering aloud how Forces of Law and Order who ought to protect its population could allegedly open fire on unarmed protesters in a democratic republic like Cameroon.

Minister Tchiroma explained that “in the management of this situation, the Security Forces were effectively deployed with a constant aim of restoring peace and order in the city of Bamenda and its surroundings by preserving human lives - including those of troublemakers - and by ensuring the safety and tranquility of populations.”

As usual, the government was quick at seeing a hidden hand behind the insurgency “the persistence of these acts of violence has become incomprehensible and hide the maneuvers of some people who are fun of shady dealings, refractory to dialogue and consultation, and who cheerfully manipulate the populations and especially the youths, in support of a hidden agenda.”

He promised that the regime bring “the perpetrators of the acts of protesterism on December 8 in Bamenda to book as they will have to face the rigors of the law and will receive, if need be, the rightly deserved punishment for the abuses for which their guilt will have been established.”

Quizzed to know if CPDM authorities who wanted to organize the meeting at the grand stand as well as the Divisional Officer who granted them the permission to hold the meeting will go unpunished by the regime for causing public disorder given that the population interpreted it as a provocation, Minister Tchiroma in a rather elusive tone said that they were not gods to have foreseen that something could happen as such.

The Minister concluded with a piece of advice that “On behalf of the Government, I am calling on our young compatriots, prey to the illusions sold to them by the sponsors of this violence, to be more vigilant and lucid enough in order to avoid being drawn into these paths which are pathways to perdition and self destruction. The Government strongly warns those who undertake to use the communication advantages of social media to misinform public opinion, misrepresent facts and incite hatred, disorder and violence, that the State will do everything in its power and with the support of friendly countries, to track them, search them out, arrest them and take them to court.”

While insisting that the regime will never call the SCNC over for dialogue until they form a political party, Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said that “the President of the Republic, His Excellency Paul BIYA, hereby addresses to families of our compatriots whose lives were claimed during these sad events his most heartfelt condolences and wishes the wounded, quick recovery.”

The Sun Newspaper