By Hope Nda
A delegation from the Ministry of State Properties, Survey and Land Tenure, MINCAF, is now investigating a major land crisis at Ewonda village in Buea, where dozens of natives say they are on the verge of losing lands they have farmed for decades to an individual.
The Post had earlier reported that ownership of the land, estimated at 85 hectares, is being claimed by Paul Tonga, a native of Ewonda who has been crowned Chief of a newly created village called Lower Ewonda.
But Ewonda natives and their neighbours of Bova, Buea Town, Bonduma and Bokwai have denied knowledge of any village called Lower Ewonda.
They insisted that Lower Ewonda, created in 2021, is a brainchild of Paul Tonga and a few supporters who have connived with some top regional administrators to grab villagers’ land under the newly created village.
They reiterated these statements during a meeting in Buea on May 9, with members of a commission sent by the Minister of State Property Surveys and Land Tenure, Henri Eyebe Ayissi, to investigate the land crisis.
The fact-finding delegation heard from both parties and promised to take their submissions back to the Minister. The delegation, headed by the Regional Delegate of the Ministry of State Property, also revealed that a surveyor would visit the land site the following week to gather more facts.
Their coming to Buea followed a complaint Ewonda natives filed at the Ministry demanding the cancellation of a land title granting custody of the 85-hectare land to Paul Tonga and his newly created Lower Ewonda village.
People who have lived in Ewonda for decades say Lower Ewonda has no land to call its own.
“I came to this village at the age of 18. I have been farming there (on disputed land) for a long time since I got married here in 1989. That place is Ewonda farmland. That’s where we have been cultivating the food we sell to send our children to school,” said 53-year-old Grace Etondi Molua, a farmer and resident of Ewonda.
“I feel very bad with what they are saying now. There have never been two Ewondas,” she added, objecting to the creation of Lower Ewonda as another village.
Similarly, Ewonda native, Mola Joseph Mokake Luma, who is in his 60s, deeply regretted what is happening now.
He described the creation of Lower Ewonda as an outright attempt by greedy individuals to deprive them of their ancestral lands.
“This piece of land you find in dispute now belongs to us. It is our ancestral land,” he said.
“We did not buy from anyone. Our people have been living here for the past, more than 300 years and we have been farming on that land. That land is where we get our subsistence. That land belongs to our future generations. That land is our children’s lands, we are just caretakers there. That land is not for sale, as Lower Ewonda is making streets and blocks to sell. Our land is not for sale; that land belongs to our children. We are only caretakers,” Mola Mokake added.
Barrister Nyonbadmia Evine, who is defending the Ewonda natives, said the land they have been occupying is classified under national land.
This is because Ewonda natives and families have been occupying and using this land before 1974.
Based on section 17(2) of the 1974 Ordinance laying down the terms and conditions of land tenure in Cameroon, he said, the Ewonda natives have a legal claim over their lands, despite having no land titles.
He told the MINCAF delegation that the creation of Lower Ewonda in 2021 was an illegality. He also drew their attention to the outright disregard Paul Tonga and his team has shown towards a binding court injunction that halted all work on the disputed land last month. Rather, they sent bulldozers that were guarded by police officers to destroy farms and ancestral shrines, causing wanton destruction.
“The village, which is purporting to have this land, is a creation of 2021. And this creation has been objected to by the Chiefs, the Ewonda village itself as the lower part of their village does not constitute another village. It is simply a quarter,” he said.
Barrister Nyonbadmia Evine was hopeful that justice would prevail and urged MINCAF to act uprightly and conscientiously.
He said all archival evidence points in favor of the disgruntled Ewonda natives. He submitted the West Cameroon Gazette of 1963, which lists villages in Buea but Lower Ewonda is not among those listed.
The Buea Chiefs Conference, he said, has also cancelled the idea that Lower Ewonda ever existed as a village.
He accused Paul Tonga and his supporters of misleading the government into creating Lower Ewonda village and granting him title over individuals’ private lands.
Barrister Lyonga Walters, a native of neighbouring Bova I village, insisted that Bova has never known any village called Lower Ewonda.
He urged MINCAF to act for the “paramount interest of justice” for the dozens of Ewonda farmers who are on the verge of losing lands they have farmed and occupied for generations.
“The people of Lower Ewonda, we don’t know where their lands are. We of Bova I are saying that we don’t share any boundary with Lower Ewonda. We don’t know them, we don’t recognize them,” he said.
When defenders of Lower Ewonda took the floor during the meeting with the MINCAF commission, they argued that Lower Ewonda had no problem with Ewonda and has been working within its boundaries spelled out in a cartographic map reportedly produced by the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation.
Barrister Rene Agbor, who spoke for Paul Tonga and Lower Ewonda, said: “I want the commission to be very aware: we are not talking about Ewonda. Lower Ewonda does not have anything to do with Ewonda. We are talking of Lower Ewonda village. And what they are claiming, saying that lower Ewonda does not exist, I doubt.”
“We don’t have problems with Ewonda village. If they have their lands there let them go and enjoy their lands, we don’t have a problem with that. But what we are talking here is Lower Ewonda village,” he added.
Paul Tonga himself was absent from the meeting and his Lower Ewonda delegation constituted fewer than five people.
Barrister Rene Agbor substantiated their claims with a document he said was from the Buea archive centre listing Lower Ewonda as one of the villages under the Muea Court Area of Buea.
He said Lower Ewonda followed “due process” in obtaining a land title that granted custody of the 80-hectare land to its Chief, Paul Tonga.
Barrister Agbor also tendered documents to prove that the Ministry of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure and the Land Consultation Board had favored the acquisition of the Lower Ewonda land title.
