Anglophone Crisis takes another dimension, Catholic Monk, others arrested

An erstwhile Catholic Monk of the Mbengwi Monastery, Thomas Tangem Nganyu, who operates a metal transformation training centre in Buea, was arrested from his Bolifamba workshop and ferried into detention in Yaounde.

Nganyu was picked up without the knowledge of his trainees, relatives and friends.

For weeks his relatives, trainees and friends searched for his whereabouts in vain.

The former monk became so vocal in his criticisms on Government decision to drag Catholic prelates and other Anglophone Church leaders to court for supporting the ‘no school’ campaign in the two English-speaking Regions of Cameroon.

He is said to have been a member of a discussion group comprising lawyers, teachers, technicians, businessmen, drivers, commercial motorbike riders and others.

Nganyu reportedly got a hunch, but refused to heed advice to escape, when co-members of the discussion group were hounded with arrest warrants between the Southwest, Littoral and West Regions, since May 2017, having been betrayed by a Government agent who had infiltrated the group.

While some members like lawyers and teachers heeded the advice and went underground, others continued crusading for school boycott. One of the teachers, Abraham Lekengu, a member of Teachers Association of Cameroon, TAC, who claimed to be a victim of punitive transfer, spearheaded the ‘no school’ and civil disobedience campaign. According to Lekengu, he was trained in ENS to teach the English Language and Literature in English, but was sent to teach purely French-speaking children in Babou, Bangante, West Region, besides low pay.

Meanwhile, the authorities suspect that they are behind the burning of Government structures around.