By Sheron Tita
The youths of Ewonda Village, on the early hours of Thursday 24 th of April, 2025, in Buea, engaged in a peaceful protest decrying grabbing of their ancestral land. They moved around the village sorrowful with placards denouncing the grabbing of their ancestral land, destruction of crops, and the creation of the Lower Ewonda chiefdom, which is currently under the leadership of Chief Paul Molua Tonga. HRH Paul Molua Tonga, was appointed chief of Lower Ewonda on the 14 th of March, 2024.
The youths, led by the interim youth leader of Ewonda village, Efome Ferdinand Motutu, carried placards condemning the following ordeals; “No to the Destruction of our crops, Lower Ewonda has never existed, Buying Land in Ewonda is at your own risk, Ewonda united we stand, No to land Grabbing, We are the Bakweri Elites, Ewonda is one and indivisible, amongst others.
During the protest, the interim youth leader Efome Ferdinand Motutu, recounted that the genesis of the land dispute, was the creation of the Lower Ewonda village, in which they were strongly against, that led to the grabbing of their ancestral land by the newly crown chief of Lower Ewonda. He said: “For some time now when they created this Ewonda village, we tried everything possible but through their influence with the administration they were able to come and coronate the chief of lower Ewonda, we allowed that to pass. Just of recent he has come back to claim, with the aid of the Governor, the minister of lands and surveys, and the Divisional officer, he was issued a land certificate of all our lands. We the youths of Ewonda, we are passing a clear message. All these while you people have not seen us because we are very peaceful. But it’s very difficult especially nowadays to push the youths right to the wall and at
this point in time they have violated, insulted injunction order, court decision that was passed on this particular land. The youths Ewonda say no to all these acts”.
Upon arrival at their ancestral lands, the youths met a bulldozer, bulldozing their farmlands under the protection of some police officers. In this light the interim youth leader thus noted: “We have passed a message to the bulldozer who came here that we don’t want any trouble. But if they want to see the other side of Ewonda youths, we are expecting them come again. If they
come again, this message will go further. We are here today because we are peaceful. If you look at all of us; we came here barehanded with just placards. And the worst of it those police officers armed their guns to shoot us, we were ready for that to happen. This is a clear message to all the administrators, to the so called chief of lower Ewonda , that we the youths of Ewonda, we are
waiting for them”.
The youths of Ewonda village hold their ancestral land so dear to their hearts because it’s the main source of livelihoods of their parents. In this regard the youth leader noted: “This land is the only source of livelihood. We have crops on it consisting of maize, plantains, avocado, palms, mangoes that enable our parents to afford something eatable. This land was given to us by our forefathers and most importantly this is where Ewonda village started before we went up due to settlement as a result of the construction of the road that linked Bonavada villages”.
After emphasizing on the importance of the land, the interim youth leader then appealed to the head of state to address this issue while equally calling on Fako youth elites to join themnin their fight for justice. He stated: “I want to send this message again to the Fako elites, they should not fold their arms, they should join the Ewonda community to seek for justice. We are calling our father in Yaounde, to please see into our situation, his children are crying; he should look at our situation”.
Ewonda land, as explained by the interim youth leader, extends down to Bonduma. “From the tarred road that you see up there right down to Bonduma, and so on. They want to take this land where do they want us to go? If they want to kill us the youths, we say no to that. And we will not allow it to happen anywhere. We solidly stand against land grabbing in Ewonda. Ewonda
is not a newlayout. I want to ask the administrators if it’s possible for a single leader to own a village and over 100 hectares of land alone. Is that possible? And it is important for you people to know that they have sold all of their lands.
Aside from that interim youth president of Ewonda further recounted that none of the indigenes of the village is in the support of the actions of the accused ( chief of lower Ewonda). In line with this, he noted: “In this land no Ewonda youths is behind them”.
Meanwhile it is worth recalling that before now the land dispute pitting HRH Chief Thomas Njie, traditional ruler of Upper Ewonda and Chief Paul Molua Tonga, was taken to the Administrative court for resolution. The administrative court through an injunction order called on both parties to refrain from all forms of meddling and trespassing over the said village land.
Despite the court order, police officers were deployed to the community land together with a bulldozer, for bulldozing of farm lands.
