Bambui Fon Under Fire Over Food Market Closure

The Fon of Bambui Angafor Mombo-oh III in Mezam Division, North West Region, recently came under fire from his subjects when the food market in the village was shut down on Monday, July 7, 2014.

By Azore Opio

On July 9, the villagers including youths, commercial motorcyclists (okada riders), the drivers’ union and the women’s juju society known as Takumbeng stormed Fon Angafor’s palace demanding an explanation and the immediate re-opening of the food market.

“The irate villagers reacted after the Mayor of Tubah, Tanjong Martin, the Divisional Officer (DO) for Tubah, Alim Garga, the Special Branch Commissioner and the Commissioner for Public Security moved into the market and announced that it had been suspended,” said Peters Tabah, former Social Democratic Front (SDF) councillor.

Reports say the Fon did not leave the palace to address the aggrieved subjects but pleaded with them to enter the palace.

The villagers instead invited him to the gate of the palace.

“By tradition, the Takumbeng does not enter the palace, so the crowd remained outside the gate,” said Mokom Regina.

Reportedly flustered, the Fon is said to have called the DO who met a lot of resistance from the angry villagers. He, however, lifted the decision to suspend the market and said the villagers could use the market while he concerted with the Fon.

“The Mayor in collaboration with the SDO and with the complicity of the Fon closed the market,” said Tabah, adding that the market was duly legalised by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Other issues that seemed to have sparked the protest include the Fon “despising former Mayor Sofa Meji Stanislaus,” a villager said.

“He did not want to receive Sofa during his mandate as mayor,” said the villager. He also said after the last twin elections, Fon Angafor blacklisted 12 persons (11 male and 1 female) for “elimination”.

“Then his lust for money has rendered the tradition of Bambui useless; he has ceased land from his subjects and sold them,” the villager told The Green Vision.

Phone calls to Fon Angafor to verify the allegations stated against him were immediately answered by the Fon himself but with excuses of being engaged in one meeting or the other.