Drunken cop detained for losing gun to thieves

A judicial police officer serving at the Mbonge Frontier Police Station, Mbonge subdivision, Meme, Southwest Region is currently awaiting trial at the Kumba principal prison for reportedly losing his pistol to suspected pirates, The Post has learnt.

The incident which occurred last weekend is said to have transpired while the officer was on duty at the Mbonge Beach.

Security sources told The Post that, the said officer was part of a team of officials dispatched to ensure the borders of Cameroon with Nigeria remain sealed as Government battles to keep the deadly Ebola virus at bay.

According to narratives gathered by The Post, the cop is said to have been cajoled by a group of men approaching Cameroonian shores with goods in a boat from the Nigerian end of the border. The men are said to have lured the officer into a nearby drinking spot around the beach went on binge drinking ostensibly as a means to beat the security at the beach.

After drinking for hours with the suspected pirates, the security element is said to have stumbled on a bike rider who happens to be a person he knows and zoomed off to his house without taking along his gun or reporting back to the station that night.

The Post gathered that, the search for the pistol started the next day when the said officer could not report to his superiors work done the previous day and to justify the whereabouts of his precious working tool.

Confused, the frontier Police Chief is said to have informed the Divisional Officer for Mbonge, Simon Sombe, who is also quoted to have relayed the information to the Meme Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, David Koulbout Aman.

It is on the instruction of the Meme administration, The Post learnt, that the officer in question was arrested and taken to the Kumba Production prison while investigations continue.

A source at the Meme Legal Department hinted The Post that, for now, the issue remains in the hands of the administration but that the State Prosecutor could feature in the investigations to ascertain the whereabouts of the pistol which is Government property.

Besides the move to trace the whereabouts of the gun, it is equally becoming visible that, the administrative and judicial machinery remains jittery to uncover what the suspected pirates actually intended to ferry across into Cameroon at a moment when the security of most West African countries remain threatened by the Ebola virus.