Cameroon: Bike rider killed over FCFA 4,000 dispute
By Shout-Africa Cameroon Correspondent – Njie Jean de Dieu and his younger brother, Leone, reportedly murdered their childhood friend and classmate, Tonye Hérve Martial, after a drinking spree.
Logbessou gendarmes are grappling with a new security imperative, that of managing growing pressures from a swelling mob following the gruesome murder of Tonye Hérve Martial, 25. When news of the death of the commercial motorcyle rider broke in the PK11 neighbourhood, a furious mob stormed the residence of his assailants still at PK11 where they lived with the rest of their family.
In a failed bid to get hold of the assailants’ family members, said to have earlier sought refuge at the Logbessou Gendarmerie Brigade after their sons’ murderous act, the mob went wild, ransacked the house, flung properties outside, and then set them ablaze.
On the morning of July 11 a PK11 throng laid siege to the Brigade venting their anger at the security men who refused to hand over the family to them.
The story goes that Njie Jean de Dieu and his younger brother, Leone, stormed Tonye Hérve Martial’s family residence at about 6:30 on the evening of July 10. With machetes and hammers and in front of his helpless mom, they randomly mercilessly attacked Tonye Herve Martial, who died while being conveyed to a local clinic.
A resident disclosed that the mob was stirred up by the fact that the assailants did not only commit the murderous act, but later moved to where the victim rented (about 1 km from his family home where he is said to have been killed), and his belongings scattered at a nearby junction; still visible at press time. The parents of the deceased, Mbebi Mboa Pierre, 43, and Tonye Adele, 42, said their son was accused of not being able to give in 4,000 FCFA as income for two days of commercial bike riding.
The deal went sour in just less than two weeks of the contract. The reported murder suspects are said by security men to have used two machetes and two hammers in the act. So far, only Leone has been arrested by the Gendarmerie. A gendarme said they have evidence that the assailants did not only consume Indian hemps and excess alcohol, but are also addicted to them. The source has also of the hemps have also been discovered. Meanwhile, early July 11, a mixed patrol of police and gendarmes visited the scene and began further investigations.
