Hon. Chief Paul Nji Tumasang Archives
Members of Cameroon's National Assembly drawn from the opposition Social Democratic Front, SDF, have said it is only a decision of the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party that can order them to stage a withdrawal from the lawmaking house in protest over the inability of the chambers to debate on the crisis in the North West and South West Regions.
They made the declaration Tuesday, July 9, 2019 during a presser to shed light on the just ended second ordinary session of the National Assembly.
Their position may well be a response to calls for them to withdraw from the National Assembly until such a time when the Anglophone Crisis would have been resolved.
Armed men fighting for the independence of a country they call the Federal Republic of Ambazonia - a geographical allusion to Cameroon's North West and South West Regions - have since called on SDF Lawmakers to withdraw in a bid to give their demands greater visibility.
In fact, when Ni John Fru Ndi, SDF National Chairman emerged from the custody of the armed fighters days back, he said he was told to order SDF MPs and Senators to withdraw, an order he had so spiritedly opposed.
The Members of the SDF Parliamentary Group at the National Assembly expressed the need for a ceasefire, pardon and general amnesty as remedial measures to stop the war in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon.
At the press conference chaired by the SDF parliamentary group leader, seven points were raised in their desire to end the warmongering in the troubled regions.
They invited the belligerents to agree to a ceasefire, asked government to free all those detained in connection with the crisis and that general amnesty be granted to Cameroonians in the diaspora as well as the initiation of open debates at the National Assembly on the way forward.
The SDF MPs also asked that the victims of the ongoing war be compensated and a peace, truth and reconciliation commission be set up.
The lawmakers said elections should be organised in the country only when the sociopolitical situation in the North West and South West Regions is laid to rest and asked that deadlines for the execution of the SDF party's peace resolutions be given.
The SDF Parliamentary Group Leader, Hon. Chief Paul Nji Tumasang joined Hon. Fusi Naamukong to tell the press that theirs is a duty to educate grassroots Cameroonians and also to serve as a whistle-blower.
Hon. Tumasang said they staged a walkout during the adoption of the bill relating to the new Cameroon Human Rights Commission because the change of name from the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms does not improve on the human rights of the country.
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