Sunday, November 24, 2024 -Five Nigerian pastors have been arrested and detained by the Cameroonian authorities.
The pastors were detained alongside others residing in the Idabato II
community of Cameroon, formerly known as the Bakassi Peninsula.
Their detention followed the kidnap of the community’s Divisional
Officer, Ewane Roland, by armed men in early October.
Local media had reported that Roland, alongside another official of the
council, Etongo Ismaeil, were abducted on October 1, 2024, by gunmen who used a
flying boat in the coastal area.
A former chairman of the Yoruba community in the defunct Bakassi
Peninsula, Eniola Alabo, told Punch that the Cameroonian government blamed
Nigerians in the area for Roland’s abduction and deployed soldiers to arrest
them.
“The Gendarmerie came to the community and started shooting sporadically
into the air on the day they arrested some of these Nigerians,” Alabo
said.
During the raid, some Nigerians, including Iseoluwa Eniola, Feran
Ajimosun, Idowu Ajimosun, Abiola Ajimosun, Blessing Ajimosun, Sunny Bassey,
Feran Samagbeyi, and Godwin were detained in Idabato II.
Cameroon’s South-West Governor, Bernard Okalia, visited Idabato on
October 8, 2024.
He was said to have declared a total lockdown of the area, which had
mostly Nigerians who were fishermen.
Okalia was said to have issued a 72-hour ultimatum to both Nigerians and
Cameroonians in the community to produce Roland alive, Punch reports.
Unable to work due to the lockdown, Nigerians in the area reportedly
defied the governor’s order in the first week of November to go about their
fishing business.
“They stayed at home doing nothing for three weeks. The people were
hungry because their source of livelihood was put on hold. They had to go out
to eat,” Alabo told the publication.
The action was said to have angered the Cameroonian authorities, who
deployed soldiers in Idabato on the 10th and 11th of November 2024 to arrest
Nigerians in the community.
According to Alabo, the soldiers invaded the community and started
shooting sporadically in the air, which made many Nigerians suffer varying
degrees of injury.
During the lockdown imposed on Nigerians in Idabato II, churches were
also locked.
But when Nigerians began attending to their normal activities, churches
also opened on Sunday to Christians.
“Some soldiers invaded the Assembly Church of God in the area and
arrested the Nigerian pastors there because they were told not to engage in any
activities,” the Bakassi Peninsula ex-leader said.
“The names of the pastors arrested by Cameroonian soldiers that day were
Adeleke Omoniye, Cascar Ubom, Etim Asuquo, Olamide Ayeye, and Umoh
Atete.”
The pastors were whisked away by the Cameroonian soldiers to unknown
places,
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