Numerous calls have made by different Government functionaries, urging Chiefs in the South West Region to go back to their subjects and appeal to them to abandon the forests and return back to their homes.

The first appeal was launched by the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, while on a recent peace mission to the South West Region.

During his peace crusade, Minister Atanga Nji appealed to the monarchs to go back to their various traditional jurisdictions and plead with their subjects, who have sought safe havens in the forests to leave the forest, return back home and continue with their daily lives.

During the tete-a-tete between the Chiefs and the Minister, pockets of grumblings were heard in the hall, but none of the traditional rulers could muster the courage to tell Minister Atanga Nji what they were grumbling about.

However, the same appeal was still made by the Government to the Chiefs this time through the Senior Divisional Officer (SDO) of Meme, Chamberlin Ntou’ou Ndong.

During an emergency meeting with the Chiefs in Kumba, on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, the SDO urged the custodians of tradition in the Division, to go and appeal to their subjects to leave the forests.

Going by Ntou’ou Ndong, this was a critical time that the Government wants the Chiefs to act as the auxiliary of the administration by convincing their subject to come back home and ensure a return to normalcy in the two English-speaking Regions of Cameroon.

Before the SDO could even finish his appeal, some of Chiefs started grumbling and murmuring in disapproval. Taking the floor, one of the Chiefs whose name we are withholding for fear of victimisation, said the security situation in most of their villages is not only precarious, but that it has forced most of them to abandon their royal palaces for fear for the unknown.

According to the Chief, sending them on such a mission is like sending them to go and die. He said the mission was a suicide mission.

Despite the assurance by the administrator that security dispositions have been take in that regards, the Chiefs will not listen.

It would be recalled that traditional rulers have come under intense threats in recent times from some unknown gunmen as most of them are kidnapped and are used as milking cows through the demand of ransoms in exchange for the Chiefs’ lives.