By Etse Kassim, with agency report
One of the leaders of the separatist movement in Cameroon, Julius Ayuk Tabe, was over the weekend arrested by yet to be identified gunmen in Abuja.
Tabe, who is the Nigeria-based chairman of the of the Governing Council of Ambazonia separatist movement, was taken into custody with six other members of the organisation from an hotel in Abuja on Friday.
According to global news medium, Reuters, officials of Nigerian government and a member of the separatist group in Cameroon confirmed the arrest on Saturday.
“They were having a meeting at Nera Hotels in Abuja,” the official said on condition of anonymity. The official did not know who rounded up the separatists.
The separatist group later issued a statement saying that Tabe and six others were taken from Nera Hotels by Cameroonian gunmen in an “illegal abduction.”
The Cameroonian authorities had earlier accused Nigeria of not doing enough to curtail the activities of the separatist movement who allegedly operates freely and carry out attacks from border communities in the country.
Cameroonian troops last month crossed into Nigeria in pursuit of rebels without seeking Nigerian authorisation, causing diplomatic wrangling behind the scenes.
Separatists, including armed radical elements, seek an independent state for the nation’s Anglophone regions they call Ambazonia.
The unrest in Cameroon began in November, when English-speaking teachers and lawyers in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, frustrated with having to work in French, took to the streets calling for reforms and greater autonomy.
The separatist movement, from the English-speaking part of Cameroon has been clamouring for independence over alleged claim of brazen marginalisation from the largely Francophone country.
The secession quest which continue to gather momentum over the recent months has seen to a violent confrontation between youths in the area and military leading to the death of hundreds of persons from both sides.
The uprising from the once-fringe Anglophone movement, which has been followed by heavy military crackdown represents the gravest challenge yet to the 35-year rule of President Paul Biya who will seek re-election this year.