Clash over road projects ahead of Pope’s visit: Another Biya regime show of shame!.

The episode that has left stakeholders shocked is the clash over a road project pitting the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Celestin Ketcha Courtes, and the City Mayor of Yaounde, Luc Messi Atangana.

Ugly scenes which confirmed what had until Friday, March 20, remained a rumour of perceived bad blood between Ketcha Courtes and Luc Messi played out, with many labelling them as scandalous. 

The open war is over works on the Feux Madagascar- Cite Verte stretch in Yaounde II Subdivision. Works are said to have been on for months but at a slow pace. 

Luc Messi is said to have awarded the contract to a company that is yet to deliver within the accepted time. He is said to have given a two-month period of grace for works to be completed.

Yet with pressure of preparations to give Pope Leo XIV a befitting stay in Yaounde, Minister Ketcha Courtes is reported to have intervened. 

She is said to have engaged another company to speed up works on the road to ensure before the Pope’s arrival rehabilitation works would have been complete.

The move is said to be what provoked the Luc Messi-led Yaounde City Council to go on the offensive. Workers of a construction company contracted under emergency procedure to finish the works are said to have been arrested.

The Guardian Post gathered that police officers serving at the City Council and Municipal Police agents carried out the arrests. 

The arrests are reported to have been forcefully carried out while the engineers were at work on the Feux Marche Magagascar-Cite Verte stretch.

A free-for-all fight is said to have broken out yet the uniformed officers succeeded in arresting the road workers and detaining them in a room at the Yaounde City Council.

Minister storms Council, breaks door

Apparently informed of the public fight and arrest of the road engineers, Minister Ketcha Courtes stormed the esplanade of the Yaounde City Council. 

Videos later emerged of Ketcha Courtes in a bitter exchange with workers of the City Council. They resisted her orders to release those arrested. 

In the wake of the chaos, Minister Ketcha Courtes in an amateur video is seen shattering a door and forcefully accessing a room at the Council. 

She later asked all those who had been held against their wish to walk out. Moments later, the road workers carried some of their tools, boarded pickups and left with the minister following later in her official car.

Ketcha Courtes suspects witch craft 

In amateur videos of the confrontations at the Yaounde City Council, the Minister is heard lamenting that what happened is “witchcraft”. 

She is overheard also questioning: “You talk to a member of government like this”? That the State has changed? Who is lying to you people… you want to spoil the country of Paul Biya?...you want to humiliate a minister? All these small shrimps?”.

The minister raged on, ordering the road workers who had been held hostage to walk out. 

In the same video, she promised to transport the workers back to the stretch for works to continue. 

Ketcha Courtes also told workers of the Council that the City Mayor is her collaborator. She left the scene screaming witchcraft.

Since the incident, some reports also emerged that the Minister was held hostage at the Yaounde City Council.

City Council fires back

Speaking on the programme, Club d’ Elite, on Vision 4 TV, on Sunday, March 22, the Head of Communications and Public Relations at the Yaounde City Council, Dominique Mbassi, described the incident as “a storm in a teacup”.

He said works on the stretch will be completed latest this week. Mbassi narrated that in the early hours of Friday, workers of the company which the City Mayor had contracted for the said stretch encountered intruders on site as they were about working.

The City Council official said it municipal police and police officers were alerted about the situation. Mbassi furthered that the “intruders” refused leaving the project site when police officers asked them to do so.

He said they rather resisted leaving. Mbassi denied reports that the road workers of the other company which he continued to refer to as “intruders” were “detained at the Yaounde City Council.

Going by him, the “intruders had refused to say who sent them…”. At this level, he said the head of the municipal police at the Yaounde City Council kept them “momentarily” to engage procedures for the handing over of the “intruders” to the Central Police Station No. 1 in Yaounde.

The official stated that it was in the process of engaging formalities that the minister stormed the City Council. He said the minister didn’t reach out to the City Mayor or his deputies but decided to call the SDO of Mfoundi on phone. 

He accused the minister of “profaning” the legacy of Mayor Adre Fouda whom former late President, Ahmadou Ahidjo, installed to serve the population of Yaounde. 

Mbassi said for the City Mayor, Luc Messi, there is no problem. Citing the amateur video of the incident, Mbassi noted that: "As we can see in the video, at the entrance of the City Council's main building, there are two glass doors. The second door was already open. She could therefore have exited through it without anyone stopping her”.

He argued that the minister’s intention “…was to create a buzz. She then pushed the second door to open it further, in order to allow the intruders she came to free to leave the building. For the mayor of the city, there is not really a problem. At most, it is a storm in a teacup".

SDO orders investigations

The Guardian Post gathered that the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, Djikdent Emmanuel Mariel, has ordered for investigations into the incident to establish responsibilities. It is reported that, the City Mayor who was nowhere to be found in the wake of the clashes is on leave.

The article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3739 of Monday March 23, 2026