Fru Ndi sets date to end SDF crisis

Social Democratic Front (SDF) National Chairman, John Fru Ndi, has fixed a date to elect a new Littoral Regional Bureau.

The 1st Assistant National Secretary for Communication of the SDF, Abel Elimbi Lobe, confirmed by telephone on January 19, 2016, that the election would hold on Sunday, February 21, 2016.

Elimbi said the election would probably be organised by a special commission set up by the National Chairman.

The SDF Littoral crisis went public in January 2013 when a group of party officials in Douala addressed a protest memorandum to the National Executive Council, NEC, against the leadership of Hon. Nintcheu as the Chairman of Littoral SDF.

Hon. Edward Nkembeng, Chairman of Douala V Electoral District, was identified as the leader of the group.

The Chairman of the Douala I Electoral District, Adolphe Same Lottin, currently a Deputy Mayor, Vice Chairman of the Douala V Electoral District, Abel Elimbi Lobe and the Chairman of the Bonaberi Electoral District, Mayor John Ndangle Kumase, were identified as the deputies of the group.

Initially, the group was termed as dissident before it became known as the opposition group to Nintcheu’s leadership.

Nintcheu has repeatedly accused the group of having been bought over by the CPDM to destroy the SDF in Littoral. It should be recalled that Nintcheu’s four-year mandate as SDF Littoral Chairman ended in 2013.

Considering the seriousness of the issues raised by Hon. Nkembeng in their memo, NEC resolved that the National Organising Secretary of the SDF, Ferdinand Asapgngu, should head a commission to reorganise the basic organs of the party in Littoral.

The elections were to start at the level of the wards, to the Districts, Divisions and then the Region. NEC, however, suspended the exercise following a complaint by the Nintcheu camp that municipal and legislative elections were around the corner.

After the elections, Asapgngu returned to Littoral to continue with the reorganisation of those Electoral Districts that were due. But rising tension marred the intention. Nintcheu and the opposition camps were bent on seeing their supporters win the Electoral Districts at all cost.

The Ninctheu camp even accused Asapgngu of alleged corruption and favouritism. In 2014, NEC withdrew Asapgngu and designated Senator Jean Tsomelou to replace him in the mission in Littoral.

Tsomelou is currently the West Regional Chairman of the SDF as well as the President of the SDF Group at the Senate. The Nintcheu camp had celebrated and welcomed Tsomelou.

But when Senator Tsomelou decided to recognise the elections which Asapgngu organised in some Electoral Districts, the Nintcheu group that wanted a repeat of the elections turned against him. In the face of persistent delays, NEC resolved last year that the election for the new Littoral Regional Bureau be organised.

Two senior members of the SDF, Cyprian Awudu Mbaya and Vanigansen Mo Chiggle, were designated to reinforce the NEC team headed by Senator Tsomelou.

The NEC team held a closed-door meeting in Douala last October with the two opposing camps to fix a date for the Regional elections. Hon. Awudu Mbaya was absent from the meeting. However, the NEC team and the two opposing camps reportedly agreed that the election would hold on December 12, 2015.

The Post learnt that at the NEC meeting which held in Bamenda on Saturday, November 14, 2015, some participants at the Douala meeting in October had claimed that no date was adopted at the meeting. They said the date of December 12 was just a proposal and in any case, it was not also a suitable period because of the parliamentary session.

In the face of all this confusion, Fru Ndi has resolved to intervene and fix a date for the election. Political observers in Douala believe that the successive members deployed by NEC failed in their mission either because they were corrupt or weak.

Fru Ndi was also disappointed by the Douala-based 1st Vice National Chairman, Hon. Osih, who last year moved from his initial position of neutrality to take sides with one of the camps in the SDF Littoral crisis.

Before the NEC meeting in Bamenda, the two opposing camps in Littoral addressed separate memorandums to the SDF leadership, and Osih was one of the signatories of the Nintcheu camp memo.

Before Fru Ndi’s intervention, the group strongly opposed to Nintcheu’s continuous leadership of the party in the Littoral was said to be already working on setting up a parallel Regional Bureau in Littoral. Such a situation would definitely have worsen the crisis.