Aggrieved villagers of Mokunda in Limbe II Subdivision is resisting the takeover of their ancestral land by the Roman Catholic Church – particularly the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Anne.

Over 5 hectares of their land was given to the Church in exchange for 9 bags of rice, 9 bags of salt, 9 cartons of seasoning cubes and two bottles of whisky.

The Journal learnt that final agreement to give the land to the Catholic Church was sealed in August 2012, following a request made by the Bishop of the Diocese of Buea, Immanuel Bushu.

The land was requested for the construction of a Vocational Training Centre and for farming by the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Anne.

Though 10 hectares were initially requested, Chief Ngale Edward Maole Motande, members of the Mokunda Traditional Council and the Village Lands Committee met on August 20, 2012 and agreed to give out 5 to the church.

On December 8, 2012, crops on the land were evaluated to the tune of FCFA 2,967,000. The 12 persons affected by the transaction were thus compensated accordingly.

Documents from the Registrar of Lands indicate that as at September 2013, no objection to the transaction had been registered; reason why a land certificate was issued to the church to certify ownership of the said land.

All conditions met, the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Anne proceeded to develop the land. Contractors were hired to terrace the land.

Angry villagers interrupted work at the site on Thursday, July 17, 2014. They are claiming that they were not consulted before “5 hectares of community land was given out to the church in exchange for peanuts.”

The situation necessitated a crisis meeting convened in Mokunda on Tuesday, July 22, by the Divisional Officer for Limbe II Subdivision, Ndouga Emaran.

During the meeting at the Mokunda Community Hall, Chief Ngale said the land was donated, and not transferred as by a sale, to the Sisters of Saint Anne.

Chief Ngale said the land was given with the hope that it will bring development to the village through the construction of the Technical College.

However, one of the elites of the village held a different point of view. “We are not against development. Development has no colour, but proper negotiations should be done so that both parties can benefit.

The Catholic Mission cannot benefit and the community loses. We are saying that in the near future, he [the Divisional Officer] should create a commission made up of the chief, his Traditional Council and the aggrieved population,” Gabriel Mbene Vefonge, said.

The community leaders said that they had agreed in 2012 that the Sisters of Saint Anne will develop the village in the domains of roads, health, youth employment and the offer of two free scholarships per discipline when the school to be constructed goes operational.

The representative of the Sisters of Saint Anne at the crisis meeting, Sister Pamela Bongben said, “In my life, I have never heard that a school like the one we are about to open gives free scholarships, construct roads and health centres.

All what you requested was channelled to hierarchy, and we’ve met your conditions.”

Seemingly provoked by the declaration of the Rev. Sister, Mbene said, “…we need to negotiate with the Catholic Mission…we’re protecting and defending our ancestral land.

We’ll fight to our last blood. They have brandished a land certificate. This implies that it was illegally gotten, given that there was no proper transfer of the land.

Peace will only avail when the issue is resolved. The D.O seems to have been tilted on one side. We want work to stop.”

After close to eight hours of heated debates, the likes of Councillor Ngomba Ngale, Emmanuel Mbonde John and Peter Wose, remained steadfast to the idea that work will only resume on the site after fresh negotiations.

They even proposed that the Sisters of Saint Anne purchase the land for permanent ownership.

“We’ll punish the chief for exchanging our land for nine bags of rice. The traditional council members are only there to eat and drink and to mislead the chief,” Peter Wose shouted as tempers flared.

“We have no personal interest. We met a Traditional Council and a chief who gave us conditions.

We handed the things to the 9 families. If this thing prolongs, all that has been spent should be refunded…we did not make allocation for suspended work.

The villagers need to pay for this extra cost. It was not in our place to find out about chieftaincy and the constitution of the traditional council.

If the people are not interested in the work, they should refund all what we have given them. With the present atmosphere, we can’t go ahead.” The sisters said.

The Divisional Officer, the Chief and elites of Mokunda have decided that work on the site should continue, pending further negotiations.