They were caught in possession of a loaded automatic pistol.

Police in Kumba in Meme Division of the South West Region, headed by the Central Police Commissioner, Wilson Elong Njumenjikang, are living no stone unturned to ensure that the population is safe. Men of the Police Special Intervention Unit, ESIR, recently dismantled a gang of suspected armed bandits who have been terrorizing the people.

Mbah Comfort 17, Egbemba Edmond Orock, 21, and Eseme Sylvester Mboe, 24, were arrested while robbing at Rising Star Academy Street, Buea Road, Kumba. According to Commissioner Njumenjikang, the lone girl suspect went to a home on Rising Star Academy Street and knocked the door, pleading to stay the night because since she was stranded. The Good Samaritan man opened the door and asked her to sleep in the sitting room.

Barely 10 minutes after, Comfort Mbah said she wanted to keep her shoes outside the door. As she opened the door, two young men entered the house, holding everybody at gunpoint. They searched the home, collecting money, cell phones, laptop computers, a flat screen TV set and other portable household items. Commissioner Njumenjikang noted that the weapon the bandits used was an automatic pistol of 12 rounds. “It is the same pistol the government issues to police and gendarmes," he noted. One of suspects, Eseme Sylvester, the supposed gang leader and boy friend to Comfort Mbah, claimed the gun was given to them by a friend in Bamenda.

The gang had operated in Bombe in Mbonge Sub-Division, Kake in Kumba 1 Sub-division, Barombi Kang in Kumba III Sub-division and Ekona in Muyuka Sub-division, leaving them with only three bullets. Meanwhile, the three suspects were transferred to the Military Tribunal in Buea for justice to determine their fate. Commissioner Wilson Elong Njumenjikang expressed appreciation for the collaboration of the public in tracking down the armed bandits.