Population of Bossa Village in Bali Sub-division Rush for Free Meat After Lightning Kills Dozens of Cows

Many Cameroonians have developed the bad habit of rushing to steal when trucks transporting products, or even fuel tankers, are involved in accidents. People do this without considering the health risks or the danger of accidents that might even result in their own deaths.

A few days ago, a number of cows owned by a cattle rearer, Gago Soda, were killed by lightning in Bossa Village, Bali Sub-division in Mezam Division, Northwest. It was sad indeed. But it turned out that the misfortune that hit the cattle owner, Gago Soda, and his family, was, in a way, good fortune for many villagers who got free cow meat, as some of the dead cows were slaughtered and shared among those who showed up.

The villagers were happy for the free meat. But the question is, how safe was the free cow meat? In other words, is it safe to eat the meat of an animal killed by lightning? The government prohibits eating the meat of animals found dead for health reasons. But the local population that rushed for the free meat in the small Bossa Village in Bali Sub-division certainly did not consider the health risk or didn’t bother. Perhaps they didn’t even know there was any health risk involved.

A close look at the carcasses of the cows struck by lightning showed that the lightning affected their bodies. Also, one cannot rule out the possibility that part of the free meat that many families in the small Bossa Village received, especially the boys who did the slaughtering and got large quantities of the meat, could have been taken to neighboring villages and sold at cheap prices.

A National Problem

This type of unfortunate situation or attitude of the masses is seen across the country. It is really a national problem. The rush to grab things for ‘njoh’ (free), even when an accident occurs. When a truck transporting crates of drinks, cartons of wine, or other products unfortunately falls or has an accident on the way, the general tendency is for the local population to rush to the scene for their own selfish interests. At the scene of the accident, the population is more interested in carting away crates of drinks, cartons or bags of products, or whatever the truck was transporting.

Drinking Wine on Blood

Not long ago, I came across an incident on the Wouri Bridge in Douala, which left me questioning what Cameroonians have become. It happened that a man bought cartons of wine to take to his village in the West Region for a ceremony. He loaded the cartons of wine in the boot of his vehicle. Unfortunately, he had an accident on the Wouri Bridge. He was apparently speeding, seeing the impact of the accident on the vehicle and the occupants. Our vehicle got to the scene of the accident just when the occupants were being put in another vehicle to rush them to the hospital. There was blood everywhere.

At the same time, some people were more interested in the boot of the vehicle, having noticed wine dripping from it. Some bottles of wine had broken following the accident. Some people forced open the boot and dived on the wine bottles in the cartons as if they were waiting or praying for the accident to occur. Some moved away with two, three, or four bottles of wine stocked under their armpits. They looked happy. Some even struggled to open bottles of wine on the spot, stood on the blood of the occupants of the vehicle, and happily drank the wine. I wondered what stuff these heartless creatures were made of. Terrible!

Despite the Nsam Incident, People Still Rush for Free Petrol

The worst is even with fuel (petrol), considering the very high risks involved, as it is a highly combustible substance. When a fuel tanker or train transporting fuel falls, many people in the area rush to the scene with buckets and other containers to collect fuel, ignoring the high risks involved.

Several Cameroonians have lost their lives from this reckless behavior. Remember the Nsam disaster in Yaounde where dozens of Cameroonians lost their lives and several sustained serious injuries (burns) when a wildfire sparked off while they were struggling to collect or steal petrol following a train accident. A train transporting fuel from Douala unfortunately fell off the railway line as it entered Yaounde, which was its destination, and many residents of the area rushed to the scene for free petrol, and then, fire.

But despite the high number of lives lost in that incident, many Cameroonians seem to have learned nothing. When a fuel tanker falls somewhere, many people in the locality are still seen struggling to collect fuel in containers like buckets, dishes, and even cooking pots.

No Measures Taken by the Government to Sanction Such Acts

Unfortunately, the Cameroon Government so far only condemns the behavior of the public who rush to the scene of accidents to carry away crates of drinks, cartons of wine, and other products when a truck transporting these is involved in an accident. The same happens when a fuel tanker falls, and people rush there with containers to collect petrol.

It should be noted that the risk involved aside, in reality, the people do not collect; they steal. The drinks, products, materials, or fuel do not belong to them. So the act is illegal. The people who carry out this illegal act are involved in theft. They are thieves. But unfortunately, the Government is silent on that, and the bandits seem to think that what they do is normal.

What the managements of enterprises do now is that immediately after an enterprise receives information that a truck transporting its products has had an accident in or near a town, management immediately tries to get to the nearest police station or Gendarmerie Brigade to quickly dispatch some officers to protect the products from being stolen. But that does not seem to help much, according to videos of some of the accidents that THE MENTOR has watched in recent months. Some fellows are so daring that despite the presence of law enforcement officers, they still do everything to pull away cartons or bags of products and run away. These unscrupulous fellows often far outnumber the policemen or gendarmes. It also seems that the policemen or gendarmes do not have orders to arrest these hoodlums or bandits because they only try to chase them away.