While government and teachers’ trade union leaders were still meeting it was rumoured that the leaders had been taken hostage and forced to signed committee documents.

The social media is a veritable source of information but then can generate falsehood that can set a nation ablaze. In Cameroon, the social media has proven to pose more harm than good.

This was the case last Friday in Bamenda when lies through the social media almost set the city ablaze. While the inter-ministerial

Ad hoc committee meeting was going on at the Governor’s Office, rumours went wild in town around 8 p.m. that the teachers’ trade union leaders had been taken hostage and were forced to sign committee documents out of their will, some even said the trade union leaders have been beaten up. This information spread like wild fire and in less than no time some people went mounting barricades, as well as the burning tires on the road and the burning of cars.

Some anxious youths stormed the Governor’s Office and were singing gospel songs. Due to the confrontation with the forces of law and order one boy was shot on the leg. When the committee got wing of it, some trade union leaders came out and calmed the crowd. One of the trade union leaders told the anxious crowd that “it is all lies, neither have we been kidnapped or forced to sign documents, we were not under any intimidations, our phones were never seized. We have not been beaten, none of the above happened to us and were are going on with the celebrations and our discussions have been frank”.

When this was done it brought back serenity in Bamenda and paved the way for discussions to continue. The same youths who mounted barricades went round removing the blockages from the road. The anxious population stayed at the Governor’s Office till about 1 a.m. when curtains drop on the meeting.