Military Extortion, Hate Speech: Bamenda-Ekok Drivers Down Tools In Protest


 Road Linking Bamenda And Mile 90 Nsongwa [Ptoto Credit: GPmEDIA]

By Raymond Dingana 

Drivers plying the Bamenda-Ekok road also known as the Bamenda-Enugu Corridor have been on a sit-down strike against extortion, hate speech amongst other forms of human rights abuses which they say are meted on them by security forces.

According to the chauffeurs, apart from being forced at gun point to cough up huge sums to satisfy their ever increasing hunger for money, the soldiers stationed along that road have been calling them names and using hate language on them.

We pay more than 30.000FCFA each to these soldiers per day from Bamenda to EKOK. Just from Bamenda town to Mile 90 Nsongwa, a distance of less than 4KMs, there are eight security checkpoints and we spend 8000FCFA each every blessed day. In Bali,they are two control points and we drop 2000FCFA each. After 2pm, they will tell you it's a new team meaning we still have to give money, this is really bad,

 said Yanick, a driver.

Cars Grounded As Owners Are On Strike

Another area where the drivers say they are not ready to accept is the use of what they describe as Hate Language against them.

When we resist giving them money, they will threaten us and say if we are angry, we should drop our car keys, get weapons and join Amba. This is hate language against us. We are not against security checkpoints, we are against extortion, hate language and other forms of inhumane treatments on us,

another driver indicated.

They say taking care of their families and sending their kids to school has been negatively affected because all what they make ends in the pockets of uniform officers.

The drivers have appealed to the authorities to help them breath again by looking in to the situation at hand. They state that the amount of money they give to soldiers on the way is making it difficult for them to be law abiding citizens by paying for their car documents.

It is still not clear if the authoroties will listen to their worries this time around or not given that the drivers say they have been crying for years but no one seems to care.

drayinfos.com

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