TENSION IN WUM • Soldier cuts down biker • Angry pop burns down barrack, army vehicles • “Bens Skins” Lock Down Wum • Fru Ndi Speeds to Wum • 4 wounded bikers arrested from Hospital bed Story, Randy Joe Sa’ah & Mih Ndze Fire has been burning in Wum chief town of Menchum Division. Irate youths burnt down the army barracks and vehicles Up Station to avenge the death of a commercial biker, Amih Leonel Ngong stabbed to death by a soldier. They set fire to barricades on various streets locking down the town. Then rampaging “Bend Skins” and other angry people confronted soldiers in their barracks with the corpse of their slain colleague and abandoned it in the military yard. Many of them were spoiling for a fight to avenge his death. A senior military officer is said to have opened fire on the demonstrators wounding at least three of them who were rushed to the Wum District Hospital. Some soldiers also reportedly became casualties in the confrontation. Military helicopters circ...
Story, Randy Joe Sa’ah Two top cabinet ministers helicoptered into Wum Wednesday to dig into the bloody weekend violence that gripped the Menchum divisional head quarter. The incident that claimed one life and left several soldiers with broken heads and swollen eyes could not have Paul Biya indifferent. He despatched the defence and interior ministers to assess the razing of the military barracks and vehicles, and of course what triggered the showdown between the population and the military. Ministers Rene Emmanuel Sadi and Joseph Beti Assomo went to Wum Up Station and came away visibly disturbed. They saw the charred remains of over 50 war guns and the burnt out colonial buildings once occupied and owned by the Wum Council. The men settled down for a crisis meeting at the Town Hall to assess the murder and mayhem that followed. Through Rene Sadi’s lips, President Biya condemned the slaying of the motorcyclist as well as the fracas between the population and the soldiers and destr...