Under the remand warrant, Lang Gerald, 19, is accused alongside four others of beating Kang Lawrence to death over a succession dispute.

An Examining Magistrate in Wum in Menchum Division of the North West Region recently signed a remand warrant for a murder suspect, Lang Gerald, 19, to spend six months in prison while awaiting the arrest of four other suspects and further investigations into the matter.

Lang was arrested in Wum, 30 km from Kumfutu in Zhoa Subdivision of Menchum Division where the crime was allegedly committed in December 2015. Speaking to Cameroon Tribune in Zhoa on February 4, 2016, the Commander of the Zhoa Gendarmerie Post, ‘Adjudant Chef’  Ndenge Peter, said Kang’s family members began gathering in the village on December 18, 2015, for the ‘cry die’ or celebration of the death of a relative who passed on some time ago. On the night of December 19, they kept their luggage in a relative’s home.

In the morning when they arrived to change clothes after spending the night at the death celebration, they discovered that thieves broke into the room and stole their clothes, a photo camera and money. Ndenge Peter said the theft victims searched all over the village for the stolen items to no avail. They later fell on Kang Lawrence, 48, from Kuk village, the right successor to the late uncle. Pretending that they consulted a witch doctor who told them that Kang was responsible for the theft, they obliged him to admit guilt.

But Kang Lawrence insisted he knew nothing about the burglary. They started beating him but he kept claiming his innocence. The flogging continued on December 21 after Kang was taken to a nearby stream where they repeatedly plunged his head into water. The five assailants later abandoned their almost dead victim on the road and fled the village back to various towns where they resided. All this happened as the death celebration was going on.

According to Ndenge Peter, the real reason for the killing of Kang Lawrence was a dispute over succession. Under the matrilineal inheritance system practised in Kumfutu, Kang is supposed to have succeeded his maternal uncle, but was brutally robbed of the opportunity.