Who Wants to Paint El Hadj Baba Danpullo Black?

 

El Hadj Baba (in white surrounded by NW Fons)

El Hadji Baba Ahmadou Danpullo one of the leading employers in Cameroon is again in the news. El Hadj Baba alias Ndawara has been a victim of backstabbing and slanders. This ill-fated state of affairs that is unjustifiably is being masterminded by a group of people based in Douala. According to what we gathered, media organs have been hired to embark on destroying Baba Danpullo’s reputation just at the time he started developing some parcels of land he acquired in Douala.

We were hinted that even though El Hadj Baba has remained unperturbed by these offensive, counterfeited and fictitious press reports, he has not ruled out the option of resorting to the law to correct the prejudice he is suffering from the squatters over the pieces of land he acquired legitimately and the false public opinion created by the media.

Genesis

The press organs that have published the erroneous information about Baba claim that he has seized land from some inhabitants of Akwa, Marche Congo in Douala. In actual fact, Baba is the rightful owner of the piece of land in Akwa Douala that is being claimed by illegal quarters. It all began with the recent fire incident that consumed the Marché Congo in Douala. After the fire incident, some squatters swung into action to occupy parcels of land that belong to others in the bid to occupy the vast land left by the fire disaster that razed every thing to ashes. Some squatters even erected houses on Baba’s land that was adjacent to the burnt down Marche Congo. The piece of land has a surface area of some 720 square metres. Knowing that Baba would not accept, the squatters decided to hire press organs to circulate erroneous information about the piece of land and Baba. In their bid to derail the public, they allegedly hired media organs stating that the land title of the piece of land in question was long cancelled by a decision of the Administrative Bench of the Supreme Court in June 2010.

Contrary to this erroneous information circulated by the hired press organs, information gathered at the right sources in charge of land issues in Douala indicated that Baba Ahmadou is the proprietor of the land in question. In actual fact, the land has a certificate Nº 3712/Y10/MINDCAF/P530 of July 31, 2012 delivered by the Ministry of Land Tenure. The certificate reads “the land conservator of Wouri, Here undersigned certifies that an urban building constructed on a surface area of 720m² situated at Douala in the Akwa neighbourhoods belongs in all legality to Mr. El Hadj Baba Ahmadou who acquired it on December 6, 1995 through mutation after sales”. According to this certificate, it therefore implicitly means that there is no land problem or landownership problem between Baba Ahmadou and whosoever according to the statutes applicable to Land Tenure and ownership.

Sometime in the past, it should be recalled that Baba Danpullo, a peace loving Cameroonian who respects the law wanted to develop the said piece of land. But some squatters have already occupied the land, Baba invited the late quarter head, Bakouna Cache for mutual discussions so that he could ask the squatters to leave his piece of land and settle somewhere else. Being generous he did not want to throw people into the street or use force. We also gathered from some reliable squatters that at that time, he even promised financial compensation to enable the squatters resettle somewhere else. Unfortunately, this humanitarian gesture was obstinately rejected by the illegal squatters as if the land was theirs.

It was after the fire incident that consumed the Marche Congo that Baba wanted to regain his piece of land. But his attempt to develop his rightful possession has instead been tagged a land grabber.

Gov’t Delegate, Douala II Divisional Officer, &  the Truth

After careful verification with authentic documents, our source hinted that the Government Delegate of the Douala City Council, Fritz Ntone Ntone, wrote to the D.O Douala II, drawing his attention to the fact that the said piece of land rightfully belonged to Baba Ahmadou Danpullo. This was done following a complaint by Baba after all amicable solutions have failed. The letter reads “The DO of Douala II informed me last July 16^th, 2012 of your correspondence with the following subject: Buildings erected on your land with land title Nº 8402/W were also destroyed by the fire incident that took place on the night of 3^rd and 4^th of July 2012. And in this light, you want to rebuild a modern commercial complex in the site. In this light, I request that you constitute a building permit file following the laid down rules and deposit it in my office and wish the same manner that you suspend all activities on the site until your permit is granted”. This was the letter of the Government Delegate Fritz Ntone Ntone.

Other Occurrences

Some time ago, Baba Danpullo was unduly accused of seizing land from the Mbororos and violating human rights. These unjustified accusations forced former US Ambassador Neil Marquardit to personally visit Ndawara Tea Estate in the North West Region of Cameroon to have an on the spot assessment of the situation. Instead, Neil was very embarrassed with what he saw. He discovered that through Baba initiative, SODELCO was created to encourage mutual co-existence between the fulanis and other ethic groups as well as contribute towards the socio-cultural development of the people.

El Hadj Baba vision has always been that the Fulani people are not a minority in Cameroon and that Mbororo is not an ethic group.

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