There is an uneasy atmosphere in Ewonda, Buea – Fako Division, following a dispute over land by indigenous people of Ewonda and Lower Ewonda. This made for a fact check meeting convened on May 9, 2025, on instructions from the Minister of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure (MINDCAF) at its regional delegation in the South West headquarters of Buea.
The meeting, cheered by the MINDCAF regional delegate for the South West, Nyansako Benson, sought to gather facts in response to a petition seeking the cancellation of land titles given over some 85 hectares of land in Lower Ewonda – a village created by a 2021. This contested land has generated a conflict threatening life after the Lower Ewonda community decided to carry out investments in it. Resulting in an attempted eviction of many who have occupied it for decades as an inheritance from past generations, who are from the Ewonda village.
CNA gathered that the crisis had degenerated when the population of Ewonda came to see their fruit and food trees being bulldozed under the watch of law enforcement officers. This had called for legal and administrative redress, which only succeeded temporarily in discontinuing the process.
The Lower Ewonda community agreed to have pulled down banana, palm tree, plum tree, maize, vegetable, beehives, among other economically valuable potential, to utilise the said land. This, they argued, was so because the land was occupied by “strangers” whom they did not know. Of which they further say a radio announcement had been given on state-owned media, CRTV, calling for their quitting of the land.
The hearing at the boardroom of MINDCAF, which was later followed by a site visit, attended by representatives of both parties. Over fifty persons from the Ewonda community were in attendance, led by their lawyers, as opposed to the lawyer for Lower Ewonda, who came along with the chair of the traditional council and a handful of others. Amongst whom no counter witness spoke.
The Ewonda lawyer prayed to the Minister of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure to revert the land title accorded to the lower Ewonda. Owing to documents he presented from the national archives and neighbouring communities, it is possible to ascertain ownership of the Ewonda population. He went on to establish one of the certificates to have been awarded to a dead man – a bridge of law. Mola Njie, Joseph Mokake, Molua David and Francis Sako all took turns to present their individual pieces of evidence as to the ownership rights of their respective portions on the contested land. They further cried out on the devastating damage to their crops and desecration of ancestral graves and other sites in the land.
Barister Lyonga Walters from Bova, a neighbouring community, told authorities that the conflict needed to be redressed as fast as possible to avert further danger. He warned that it was a threat to public peace and tranquillity and must not be taken lightly. He recalled that youths of the area who had protested the destruction were threatened with being gunned down. He further urged the commission to inform the minister that the land saga emanates from the creation of villages without respect for laid down principles, and so he said those behind the activity should be served justice.
Barrister Obi Rene, who was the lead advocate for the Lower Ewonda population, estimated that some of the accusations against his clients were untrue. He said Lower Ewonda had taken due process to establish land titles, for which he presented several documents as evidence. He claimed the Lower Ewonda community had informed occupants of the land through notices and radio announcements of imminent development necessitating their departure from the farm lands. He further argued that the bid for a land certificate was not contested throughout the process. He spoke alongside the Lower Ewonda traditional council chair, who said the Ewonda community did not have a case.
Nyansako Benson, in a word to close the session to get on a field visit, reminded all present that they did not all come with land and so were going to die, leaving it behind. An incamera visit of the site was then carried.
