How we go From frying pan to fire: Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria relive horrific experience
Takang Clinton, a businessman, fled Cameroon after witnessing the mindless killing of people in the war ravaging his part of the Central African country. He arrived in Nigeria in the hope of enjoying a fresh air of peace.
Of course, he did enjoy a fresh breath of air at the initial stage, making friends and socialising with his Nigerian counterparts. But the air soon became polluted, making Nigeria not too different from the toxin he fled from in Cameroon.
Clinton told our correspondent that the crisis began on February 11, 2023, during the African Cup of Nations’ finals.
His words: “It was very, very surprising because we as refugees had been integrating and watching football matches with the host community’s boys for about six years. We did engage in arguments about football without having issues.
“And even more interesting is that we as oppressed English-speaking Cameroonians have lost the love for anything about Cameroon. So, when Cameroon is playing against any country, we support that country.
“In fact, when Cameroon was playing Nigeria, even in the same tournament, we supported Nigeria.”
On the day of the finals when Nigeria scored and everybody was jubilating, Clinton, who goes by the nickname Morlan, said “a night watchman who works with Save the Children, one of the partners with the UN, was right behind me. He said, Morlan, do you know while in another man’s country, you don’t have the right to jubilate over a goal in football? It was funny to me.
“I turned and I told him my brother, is it not just football we are watching? That was all I told him. Another guy who was with him asked why I should answer their elder like that? Then I told him that these people playing football, we don’t even know them. Whether Nigeria wins or they don’t win, we are not even related to these people.
The next minute, I heard people shouting. But before I could turn, there was an attack on me with a bottle. I waved off the first person and another one came towards me. He took a bottle and broke it on his own head to prove he was strong. When he hit the bottle on his head, his head broke and blood started coming out and he was holding the other half bottle in his hand.
I came forward and said my brother, what is happening? Why did you hit your head with a bottle and standing here like this? He started shivering, vowing that he would do something.”
Along the line, Clinton said, he saw a staff member of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), who doubles as one of the traditional rulers making calls. “As soon as he was done, it did not take the next three minutes before a group of guys invaded the settlement.
“It means these guys were already somewhere around the corner waiting for the incident.
As soon as I saw them entering the settlement with bottles, cutlasses and small axes, I ran and entered the store where we were watching football.
“I could see them through the window. All I was hearing was where is Morlan? He is causing a lot of problems to our people. Where is that Morlan?
“When I saw that it was becoming more intense, I switched off the lights and ran. They burned down some stores and destroyed properties. But I was not there because I ran and I called the DPO and told him this was happening in the settlement.”
Clinton continues: “I slept outside the settlement with another friend. But surprisingly that night, a group of SEMA staff led by George Mbembe, who was then a supervisor, was moving from one hotel to another hotel looking for us. They said it was time to fight, that refugees should come and fight.
“Fortunately, they did not get us.”
The next day, Clinton and his colleague went back to the settlement. “They called a meeting, inviting the UN and other partners,” he said.
Upon reaching the village, they wrote a purported banishment letter that was not signed or dated and was not on a letterhead. They said I and two others, Abane and Angelbert, had been banished. They gave us 24 hours to leave their community else they would attack the refugees.
“We later had a meeting with the UN. The UN said that for the sake of peace and to avoid the unforeseen, because the threat was too much, we should just leave for the mean time so they could see how to resolve the issue.
“That was how we left. We stayed away for about two months.
On the 14th of May 2023, I came to Ogoja because I wanted to have a small meeting with the UN. The purported banishment letter said that we were banished from the Adagom community. So I did not go there. I stopped at the Ogoja junction.
“After the meeting with the UN, I was with the settlement’s chairlady, the secretary and one other friend. Suddenly, some guys surrounded us. They attacked me with bottles and sticks. I was severely beaten and abandoned.”
After the meeting with the UN, I was with the settlement’s chairlady, the secretary and one other friend. Suddenly, some guys surrounded us. They attacked me with bottles and sticks. I was severely beaten and abandoned.”
Clinton alleged that the people who attacked him were mostly SEMA workers. “They work with the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Cross River State. These were the same people who destroyed the SEMA government building in the refugee settlements.”
“He even invited the village chiefs on one occasion to come and intimidate refugees, to make them know that they have the right to banish anybody whenever they want, because we are strangers
After the mob attack that landed him in a hospital, Clinton said the UN paid his hospital bills. “From the day that I was banished, they told us that we should leave the community for the meantime. They assured us that we should choose wherever we thought was safe for us for the meantime and stay there; that they would take care of our upkeep and everything. That was the arrangement.
“I stayed in Lagos when I left Cross River. I stayed in Lagos for about a month or so in a hotel and they were aware of it because I was updating them.
“Up until this moment that I am speaking, nobody has cared about where we sleep, how we feed or what has become of us. We have been rendered internally displaced refugees in Nigeria.
We are law-abiding refugees in Nigeria. We deserve the protection of the federal government. We deserve the protection of the National Refugee Commission and that of the UN.
“If all these bodies cannot protect us, let them resettle us to a third country. Nobody has heard our cry. What refugees are going through in Ogoja is not seen in any part of the world.”
Wearing a frustrated look, Clinton said: “Inasmuch as we appreciate the federal government for everything, we appreciate the government of Cross River, we appreciate the Adagom people for their hospitality.
Some individuals and some others who are in offices are making things too hard for refugees. They are taking advantage of their offices.
“SEMA officials are dating refugee girls. They are taking advantage of their vulnerability, and this is not in the SOP, the code of conduct that binds all the partners.
“SEMA operates with impunity. They don’t care about anything.”
CID officials withdrew N250,000 from my account’
Clinton recalled how before his banishment officials of the state CID used his ATM card to withdraw N250,000 from his bank account.
He said: “I was bundled and handed over to the state CID in Calabar that I was dealing in arms. I reached the CID office at 3 am. I had never been to Calabar before then.
When the UN lawyer came to see me, the CID said no, I didn’t commit any crime, that they didn’t even know me.
“The next time, they brought another story that I had a group fighting down in Cameroon, and that I had organised and buried someone alive in Cameroon. That also did not fly because even the lawyer told them that they lacked jurisdiction on that and that there was no evidence regarding it.
“I have been here in Nigeria for six years and have never gone to Cameroon. They said I didn’t have any problem still I was kept there in the cell for two months.
“I was frustrated, and they started giving me conditions. I felt abandoned. They took my ATM card and I gave them my password. They withdrew N250,000 on the opposite side of the state CID. I was released thereafter and I came back to Ogoja.”
Clinton lamented, saying “I have lost everything, including a poultry farm and a fish pond. I have a workshop in the settlement where I do mentorship, employment and training for hairdressing, tailoring, shoe making, and other small things for refugees. I have lost everything.
“As I am standing here, I am only dressed as a man, I have nothing again. I am hiding. I am living by the grace of my brothers and friends. That is the truth, and that is what all of us are passing through.
