Bamenda:Children Forced At Gun Point To Trek To School

By Raymond Dingana

Some school children in Bamenda were traumatized in the early hours of Thursday when uniform officers forced them down from a bike at gun point and asked them to trek to school. The children were with their father on a commercial bike when they were intercepted at Sonac Street.

Talking to drayinfos,the father to the kids who asked to be identified only as Frank said,he tried in vain to explain:

"I did all for the officers to understand that, i was only accompanying my kids to school. I was ignored but their guns were still pointed at my children. They were so frieghtened that, they started cryingout," Frank said. 

He added that, the soldiers yelled at the kids and asked them to continue on foot. He further said, the kids had to trek for some distance inhaling dust. He asked if it is a ploy by the authorities to completely destroy what is left of the education sector in the town because according to him, all their efforts are affecting the education of their kids negativley.

Sonac Street In Bamenda

When this was raised in a radio talk show program on Abakwa FM radio in Bamenda, a caller who gave his name as Dohbila narrated a similar incident which he said happened at the Azere New Church neighbour.

" After putting both the kids and the bike rider under psychological trauma,the bike was seized while the kids continued their journey to school on foot,"Dohbila indicated.

Reacting to both cases, a human right defender who go by the name Tantoh Martin indicated that, what the officers did was a violation of the Rights of the children. Worthy of notes is the fact that, in the early days of the restriction on the circulation of motor bikes around the urban peremeters of the town by the City Council on grounds that, it was a strategy to curb the level of insecurity, military vehicles were reported to have knocked down persons on motor bikes and the bikes seized. 

The restriction according to many a Bamenda denizen has brought untold hardship on them as cab drivers increased transport fair per drop.

Complains  have equally centered around health. There is the fear that, as they are forced to be using the  dusty roads in the quarters and inhaling dust, they may be exposed to air borne deseases.

To them,if the issue is with the bike sector, the authorities should provide more cabs and also take care of earth roads in the suburbs.

Society watchers have also invited the population to do all to respect the decision restricting the circulation of motor bikes in the urban areas of the town because,the decision is still in place.