About a dozen proprietors and managers of interurban transport agencies in Douala are presently languishing in Gendarmerie custody after their arrests last Friday, October 15. They were arrested following refusal to comply with a Douala Urban Council decision relocating them to Sodiko and Madagascar Parks. Following the traffic nuance and hurdles posed to the development of the area, Douala authorities convened a meeting with management of all travel agencies, trade unions in the sector, council authorities and forces of law and order during which the decision to seal agencies with “irregular” situations was reached. Reason why the administrative team composed of DOs of Douala I, II and III, Mayors of Douala I and II, trade union representatives and forces of law and order, led by Wouri SDO, Bernard Okalia Bila?, visited the interurban transport agencies found at Douche, Terminus, Mboppi, and Kilometre 5, during which some were either closed or given short deadlines to rectify their situations.
Going by the Permanent Concertation Meeting of June 18, 2008, Guarantee Express, Le Car and Finexs Express, in addition to Central Voyage, had been granted authorisation for temporary stay at Douche and Mboppi. They were to wait and quit with the construction of Mega Bus Parks at Yassa and Bonaberi. Other agencies without authorisation and those operating at illegal sites were to quit or be dislodged. Given misinterpretation of a DUC communiqué issued last Saturday evening, some “Benskiners” and the population around Douche agitated against the blocking of Finexs Agency for functioning and of its sealing. It took the intervention of the Littoral Regional Delegate of the Delegation General for National Security who despatched police officers to Finexs to calm the agitation and ordered the blockages to be lifted to free the traffic and agency to function. Finexs management then brandished authorisation documents reportedly with a signature impersonating DUC Government Delegate. Finexs was later sealed last Sunday midnight. Agencies sealed include, Navette, Orient, Alliance, Pola, Grace Lines, Butra Voyage, and Princesse Voyage. Meanwhile, Confort and Buca Voyage have been given 15 days to regularise their situations. At Buca, the Mayor of Douala II said the agency was constructed on land belonging to Lycee de Mboppi and its management obtained authorisation to operate rather from the Sangmelima Council.
