In his welcome address that fateful day, the Government Delegate to the Limbe City Council, Motanga Andrew Monjimba, called on the ‘new’ SDO to demonstrate a high sense of responsibility, abnegation and impartiality in the handling of issues across Fako Division.

Without bluffing, Motanga came down hard on the issue of land grabbing and land merchandise, which he said has grown to such a proportion that if not curbed, succeeding generations of Fako children shall not have where to build or farm for themselves.

“We are also very helpless in the face of unscrupulous land grabbing and wanton sale of national and State land in Fako Division.

This is a stock in trade put in place by a well-lubricated machinery.

“We need a strong hand to deal with this callous activity by mindless merchants,” Motanga said.

Motanga also listed a series of other economic demands that the Fako people will like to see their new SDO push to fruition: the protracted Limbe Deep Seaport Project that has remained just on papers for so long, the Limbe Shipyard Project still under construction, among others, The Post reported.

Governor Bernard Okalia Bilai, during the installation handed over the files of a decade long unresolved Limbe Paramount Chieftaincy Crisis to Ledoux.

Okalia, today Governor of the South West Region, was in July, 2007, the then SDO of Fako when the late Paramount Chief of Limbe, HRH Chief Ferguson Manga Williams, passed away.

By tradition, the SDO was supposed to conduct consultative talks with the ruling family and proceed to designate a new successor.

10 years after (as at July 16, 2017), the same Okalia was in Limbe to commission a new SDO, when the Paramount Chieftaincy stool was still vacant.

Ledoux immediately went to work and held consultative talks to fill the Limbe and Buea Paramount Stools. John Elufa Manga Williams was in July 2018 chosen to occupy the vacant Limbe Paramount stool, while Esuka Endeley had on February 5, 2018 been designated to ascend the stool.

It is not known if the Governor’s admonishment for Ledoux to use his sense of wisdom and spirit of good judgment to hold consultative talks with the kingmakers of the Buea and Limbe Paramount Chiefdoms was respected given the many petitions that have since flooded Yaounde.

From Okalia’s pronouncements on July 16, 2017, it was clear that the designation of who to succeed the late Chief Manga Williams, who died in 2007 in Limbe and the late Chief SML Endeley, who died on July 7, 2015 has been a herculean task to himself and all the other SDOs who had succeeded him in Fako.

“Your Division is also known as a village where chieftaincy disputes or ascending to chieftaincy stools baffles all reasons. Potentially, everyone here is ready to mislead you and to make of you, after attaining their objectives, their scapegoat,” Okalia said.

To him, the problem of chieftaincy in Fako has been made more complex by the fact that almost everyone wants to be a chief and by this, they are always ready to come and mislead any administrator with just the wrong information.

“As a result of this confusion, the Limbe First Class Chieftaincy stool has been vacant since the death of Chief Manga Williams in 2007 and that of Buea in 2015,” Okalia had said.

He had urged Ledoux to steer clear of those who will come just to derail him, urging him to do his utmost best to work towards the development of the Division and avoid being misled. He implored him to work closely with the people. “I will always be there to support you,” he promised.

Senator Charles Mbella Moki, in his own words of advice that fateful July 16, 2017, admonished the new SDO (Engamba Ledoux) to use his high sense of reasoning and make the speeches of the Government Delegate and the installation speech of the Governor his daily points of reference.

“I know that he is going to bring satisfaction to the people of Fako Division by the Grace of God,” Senator Mbella Moki said.

It remains unclear is Engamba Ledoux indeed has been using the Motanga and Okalia speeches on the day of his installation as his daily points of reference.