Christopher Tambe Tiku, branch head of the Cameroon Human Rights Commission for the South West region has tackled the forces of law and order operating in the region for their treatment of youths suspected of being scammers.
Speaking on national radio’s flagship magazine, Cameroon Calling on Sunday September 04, 2022, he said the bigger emergency should be keeping schools protected, and not molesting youths for allegedly being scammers.
“… Suddenly you will hear from them that you are a scammer and yet our schools remain unprotected. These are agents of the government; the police, gendarmes and military. They should guard those schools. The boys have realised that most of these schools are unguarded. I don’t know how many times I have had encounters with them to stop them from harassing our children. You take them and throw inside the cell that they are scammers. Is that the issue at stake?” he quizzed.
The priority on the to-do list of the forces of law and order, the human rights crusader remarked, should be to play their role for a return to normalcy and then anything else can follow. The South West Human Rights Commission Chair on the other hand, acknowledged the existence of legislation to combat scamming and other web malpractices, but established that these can’t be fought in the absence of peace.
“Inasmuch as there is a law on cyber security, there is an emergency now. The emergency situation is to tackle the crisis, to deal with the situation and protect our schools.”
Another preoccupation he expressed, is the use of mobile phones during working hours, a practice he warned continues to endanger the lives of the armed forces in the troubled regions.
He said: “… where you find one or two police officers or gendarmes sent to those places for protection purposes, you find them on their phones. That is why most of them have been attacked.”
Thousands have been killed in the North West and South West regions since the crisis turned violent. In addition to multiple acts of impunity reported, many have raised concerns over the approach of the forces of law and order in combatting cybercrime. This approach, they note, is often harsh and inconsiderate.