Who wants to kill CDC?.

The attacks, strangely are not coming from outside the country. It is the unfolding of a scheme, orchestrated by persons whom officials say are greedy and self-seeking individuals battling to amass land at all cost. In all these, the entire nation is shockingly quiet.

This is a Corporation the government, with approval from the Head of State, Paul Biya, has pumped in billions of FCFA to keep alive. 

Late last year, the governments pumped in 15.5 billion FCFA to clear workers arrears and keep thousands of CDC workers busy in the plantations. The amount raised government’s investment in that light to 35 billion FCFA.

Dr Chief Joseph Dion Ngute, the Prime Minister, Head of Government and the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, launched the payment of arrears covering the years 2018-2022, during a grandiose ceremony in Limbe, in October 2025.

President Biya upped the game of government’s momentum to revive the CDC, by ordering the securing of 51.8 billion FCFA from Standard Chartered Bank and BFI for the supply and installation of modern palm oil, margarine and rubber processing plants.

Through the move, government had committed over 91 billion FCFA to the CDC and national recovery project.

Before now, the major enemy of the CDC was known to be separatist fighters. But the turn of things, especially around Estates in Fako Division, signals what authoritative sources are saying is a brazen gang up to frustrate every government effort to keep the CDC alive.

Yesterday, groups of persons, said to be the Muslim community in Mutengene, cut down young palm trees. They enjoyed the backing of heavily armed soldiers who kept protesting CDC workers at bay.

The groups continue to operate through varied schemes. If they are not destroying crops, they are felling palm trees or encroaching on CDC land in the Esuke Section in Ombe. 

Complicity emboldening illegality?

Those behind the scheme have been repeatedly said to be wearing masks that permeate all strata of public institutions that are supposed to be protecting CDC from land grabbers and groups of persons seeking to get rich at all cost trough forceful encroachment on the Corporation’s land.

Yesterday, a group of persons, said to be acting under the guise of the Muslim community in Mutengene, stormed Esuke and massively cut down young palms on which the CDC is hugely counting to come out of the woods.

On Thursday August 20, 2026, the same group, hiding within influential public offices, staged what has continued to baffle the nation. Yesterday’s encroachment and destruction were Part Two of what happened six days back. 

Yesterday, under the protection of a contingent of security officers, they reportedly hired chainsaw operators from far away Douala, to fell palm trees in their prime of production.

In a narrative which the management of CDC has continued to expose as lies, the individuals are laying claim to the land, citing several disputed community projects. The August 20, 2026 incident happened at Esuke village, not far from Mutengene in Fako Division.

The act was blamed on individuals passing for the Muslim community in Mutengene, laying claim to 44 hectares of land, reportedly belonging to the CDC.

Analysts have expressed worries that this is happening at a time the CDC is battling to come out of the shocks of the deadly armed conflict in the two English-speaking Regions of the country.

Despite cries from the management of the CDC, those behind the drive are said to have returned to Esuke Section of the Bota Estate yesterday and fell the remaining young palm trees. 

On August 20, 2026, they felled 52 young palms. But on their return, yesterday, everything was brought down, whereas as the CDC General Manager, Franklin Ngoni Njie said, a mini mill at Moliwe is already in place. 

It is the same Esuke village under Mutengene, which interest groups renamed Bonganjo. Persons with similar antics have destroyed farms of an estimated 450 persons. 

CDC bleeding, jobs vanishing

In January this year, CDC workers poured to the streets in Tiko, following the destruction of five hectares of land in the Ndongo Camp. The workers, then, had called on the powers that be to intervene without delay.

 The CDC General Manager had put the destruction then at 4.2 hectares, and a financial loss of 75 million FCFA. He had also decried that such incessant attacks were sending several persons out of their jobs:

Who is hiding behind Muslim community to grab CDC land?

The controversy around CDC land in Fako, especially that in Mutengene, has been linked to the Muslim community. When CDC workers in Ndongo Camp protested in January this year, the management had said the problem started in 2021, when officials, who identified themselves as representing the Muslim community, applied to the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, of Fako, for land to construct a museum, school, mosque and other facilities.

By 2023, the CDC said the same group, styled as Muslim community, applied to the Corporation for land. The Corporation said it turned down the offer, stating that the Ndongo Camp was a buffer between Banana and palms.

But during the January 2026 protest, the leader of the Muslim community in Mutengene, Ahmadu Issiaka, distanced the community from the quest for land.

In the company of notables and other Muslim stakeholders, Ahmadou had said the quest for land is the handiwork of selfish individuals.

Mutengene Muslim community setting dangerous precedence

The situation with the Muslim community in Mutengene, observers are saying, is a dangerous precedence that must be arrested before things go out of hand.

They note that asking for land surrender while disregarding laws and procedures in force, if left to continue, will give the public the understanding that any community or religious body can do the same.

An observer said, with what is happening, it means any other community or religious body can just get up one morning and start destroying the heritage that the Corporation is to Cameroon.

“If government does not immediately come in and stop what the Muslim community in Mutengene is doing in Esuke Section, it will means giving either the CBC, Catholics or Presbyterians the latitude to one day encroach on the CDC land and start destroying young palms because they want to build a church, schools and a hospital,” he added. 

Gov’t looking away amid conflicting instructions

The situation at the CDC has been described by political observers as a new threat to the life of the Corporation and thousands of jobs. The government has continued to look away with multiple instructions from Yaounde further sowing seeds of confusion. 

Among the many conflicting authoritative moves and maneuvers around the CDC land is a reported September 22, 2020, letter from the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, to the Minister of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure, Henri Eyebe Ayissi, suspending land transactions across Fako, including CDC land surrender.

Sources within the CDC had also said in January this year, when its workers went to the streets, that in February 2024, Minister Eyebe notified the Corporation of a letter from Ngoh Ngoh, ordering surrender of land to the Muslim community if such is available.

How the entire administration, elite and those vested with addressing such attacks threatening to kill the CDC, have maintained a stony silence, pundits are saying, may not be a mystery. 

They are now affirming that the CDC is at the heart of a whole new conspiracy that must be stopped and urgently so, especially given that it is the undisputed second employer after the government.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3891 of Thursday August 27, 2026