This was made known by a former chairman of the Yoruba community in the defunct Bakassi Peninsula, Eniola Alabo, during a chat with pressmen on Tuesday.
Local media had reported that Roland, alongside another official of the council, Etongo Ismaeil, was whisked away on October 1, 2024, by gunmen who used a flying boat in the coastal area.
According to Alabo, the Cameroonian government blamed Nigerians in the area for Roland’s abduction and deployed soldiers to arrest them.
“The Gendarmerie came to the community and started shooting sporadically into the air on the day they arrested some of these Nigerians,” Alabo said.
The man explained that his compatriots in the troubled community called and explained that the incident had plunged them into panic and anxiety in the border town.
During the raid, some Nigerians, including Iseoluwa Eniola, Feran Ajimosun, Idowu Ajimosun, Abiola Ajimosun, Blessing Ajimosun, Sunny Bassey, Feran Samagbeyi, and Godwin were detained in Idabato II.
Saturday PUNCH gathered that Cameroon’s South-West Governor, Bernard Okalia, visited Idabato on October 8, 2024.
He was said to have declared a total lockdown of the area, which had mostly Nigerians who were fishermen.
Okalia was said to have issued a 72-hour ultimatum to both Nigerians and Cameroonians in the community to produce Roland alive.
A clip of the visit, obtained by our correspondent, showed him saying, “All shops are closed…the churches are closed till further notice. No exit, no entry in this whole Idabato.”
Alabo said Nigerians in the community were rendered economically handicapped, leading to hunger and frustration.
Residents, however, reportedly defied the governor’s order in the first week of November to go about their fishing business.
“They stayed at home doing nothing for three weeks. The people were hungry because their source of livelihood was put on hold. They had to go out to eat,” Alabo said.
The action was said to have angered the Cameroonian authorities, who deployed soldiers in Idabato on the 10th and 11th of November 2024 to arrest Nigerians in the community.
According to Alabo, the soldiers invaded the community and started shooting sporadically in the air, which made many Nigerians suffer varying degrees of injury.
When asked about the possible intervention of the offices of Consulate-Generals of the two West African countries, the Nigerian nationals said their efforts had not yielded results.
“I have gone to the office of the Consulate-General of Cameroon in Nigeria, but nothing happened. I was not allowed to see the woman. I learned that she is a new person appointed,” Alabo said.
All efforts to reach the Consulate-General of Cameroon in Nigeria were futile as both numbers and email addresses on their website appeared dormant as of the time of filing this report.
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