Cameroon Headlines, Lobe, Ekondo Titi, June 3 – Three stray aircrafts landed in Lobe, Ekondo Titi
Sub-division, Ndian Division last May 30, raising fears of a Boko Haram
attack.
The three Unique Seat Aircraft known as Ultra Light Machines, ULM,
unexpectedly landed in Lobe Estate of PAMOL Plantations with some three Spanish
nationals on board.
The news spread like wildfire, and sent shock waves down the
spines of the populace who responding by going into hiding. They feared that the
dreaded Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram, were around.
Daniel Mpako Eyong, Supervisor of the Emergence Unit of the Lobe
Estate Hospital told Cameroon Headlines, that they were taken
aback when they saw the three aircrafts occupying the air space of Lobe
Estate. The aircrafts had landed around the Lobe Estate airstrip “for close to 15minutes
before moving on to land at the Full Gospel Mission Church yard, given that the
landing strip has been transformed into a maize farm.
Gabriel Ful Toh, a PAMOL security guard, said that there was much
panic in the area, since they have never seen such planes. He said it was for
this reason that they concluded that it was the “landing of Boko Haram in
Lobe”.
Philip Tambe aka Zabra, Commander of the Ekondo -Titi Gendarmerie
Post, is reported to have arrived the scene in time and apprehended the
strange visitors.
The Divisional Officer (DO) for Ekondo-Titi, Edwin Nkenya Ngwana
accompanied by security officials got to the scene shortly after. The DO
immediately called on the population to remain calm.
Nkenya Ngwana said his investigations revealed that the three
Spanish Nationals were: Benthem Martin Alonso,born on November 14,1966 in
Madrid; Gimenez Carmona, born on May 22,1967 in Malaga and Yuste Raminez,
born on October 28 ,1971 in Valencia.
According to their passports, described as ‘valid’ by security
officials, the trio are Tourists who took off from Malaga Spain since April 25,
2014 for a pleasure trip to Africa. They had already made several stops in many
African Countries. They said their last stop was Nigeria after spending some
days in Mali.
They were coming from Nigeria with the hope of landing at the
Douala International Airport before taking off for Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
and to continue to South Africa.
According to them, one of the planes had a technical fault and
thus they were forced to land in Ekondo-Titi since their map indicated that
there is a mini air port in the place but to their greatest dismay they
realised that the place has been transformed into a farm.
Taking their averment with a pinch of salt, the DO immediately informed
the Commander of the 2nd Military Region in Douala, General Saly Mouhamadou, who
rushed to Ekondo-Titi alongside an expert from the Cameroon Air Force.
In their investigation they discovered that the Spanish Tourists did
not have authorisation to use the Airspace of the area.
Though confirmed as tourists and not Boko Haram as the population thought,
their three aircrafts were impounded in Lobe for further investigations.
The Spanish Nationals were
taken to their Consular Office in Douala.
Security and administrative officials have assured the population
that the vigilante security forces of the frontier Sub-division are on high
alert.
At press time the air-crafts where still at the Lobe Estate
grandstand under tight security pending results of on-going investigations.
Meantime, Cameroon Headlines observed that life has
returned to normal amidst a heavy security presence.
