While the search continues to find the sub-prefect of Batibo, a locality in the Momo constituency in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia abducted  last February 11 by unidentified gunmen, the Francophone  governor  has installed an acting Divisional Officer leading political commentators to opine that the Biya regime and the Ambazonia Interim Government have one surprising thing in common-the way they replace abducted leaders.

Adolphe Lele Lafrique, installed on Wednesday, Ernest Nkwandze as acting sub-prefect of Batibo and pleaded with the Batibo traditional authorities to help free the abducted DO.  Namata Diteng, the DO of the Ambazonian Batibo district, has been missing since Sunday, when his burnt-out car was found in an isolated area. Cameroon’s army said on Monday that it was continuing to search for a local official after separatists in a restive English-speaking region claimed to have captured him.

He had been meant to preside over local festivities for Cameroon Youth Day, a controversial day in the country’s two anglophone regions — in the northwest and southwest — where dozens of people have been killed since October after a violent crackdown on protests against the mainly French-speaking government.

There were numerous appeals by separatists online to “kill the prisoner” of the “colonial army”. Army spokesman Colonel Didier Badjeck told AFP that Cameroon forces were continuing their search for Diteng on Monday night.

Badjeck also dismissed as “fake news” a picture of a dead man circulating online that some separatists claimed was Diteng.

By Sama Ernest