The parcels of land have been a source of dispute between the University of Buea and the Bulu Traditional Council, although UB is brandishing a land certificate over the said parcel of land.

Aside from hosting demonstration farms of the Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, UB’s IT Center was newly constructed on the said land while the administrative block of the Faculty of Laws and Political Science is under construction.

Whereas the Bulu Traditional Council says the property is their native land, Barrister Mbella Ikome Ngongi says the University of Buea owns the land and has land titles over them.

“There is a land title over this land. It is in my possession and the University of Buea has a copy. Anybody who claims to be coming here to sell land is doing so at his own risk and peril, even if it is President Biya. There is a process in law for the government to go through if they want to expropriate property,” the lawyer said.

Cameroon-Info.Net recalls that the Supreme Court had on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, canceled a land certificate held by the Bulu Traditional Council and others over the said parcel of land belonging to the University of Buea.

The court's decision is based on the authenticity of the land title brandished by the Bulu traditional council over the parcel of land in Bulu – the land occupied by UB. 

 “Cancellation of fraudulent land title on UB Bulu Land,” read the subject of a press release signed by Professor Ngomo Horace Manga, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buea and addressed to the university community and the general public.

His words: “The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buea hereby announces to the University Community and the general public that by Judgment No. 110/FD/2020 of 2nd September 2020, the Administrative Bench of the Supreme Court of Cameroon has canceled Judgment No. SWAC/LSP/003/2019 of the South West Administrative Court granting Parcel of A2 (of land) that stretches from the St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church to the Bulu Village Traditional Council and Others. 

“Consequently, Land Certificate No. 07461 Vol. XXXVIII folio 53 of 23 February 2014 issued to the Bulu Village Traditional Council and Others on the said Parcel A2 of land has been nullified (squashed). All those trading on the University of Buea land should desist from such malpractice as intruders shall be prosecuted by law.”

But Friday’s demolitions is said to have been carried out by the Bulu Village Traditional Council on the strength of a ministerial order transferring the disputed parcels of land to it.

On September 1, 2020, a day before the Supreme Court ruling, Henri Eyebe Ayissi, Cameroon’s Minister of State Property, Surveys, and Land Tenure dispatched a letter to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buea, informing him of the retrocession of the disputed land to the Bulu Community.

The letter has as subject, “land dispute between Bulu Community and the University of Buea.”

“Based on the recommendations of the commission chaired by the Senior Divisional Officer of Fako in September 2019 settling the land dispute mentioned supra,” the minister wrote, “I have the honour to inform you that, the Senior Divisional Officer for Fako has been  requested to reduce land certificates 02694/Fako and 02695/Fako established on behalf of the University of Buea, to retrocede the  both disputed parcels to the Bulu Community and to find another site which will be attributed in compensation to the University of Buea.”

As the land case drags, students are paying the price, given that huge portions of their research farms were destroyed last Friday.