The Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), grows three crops namely Banana, Oil Palm and Rubber spread over 50.000 hectares of land in the South West, North West and Littoral regions. Ensuring the security of these crops is an uphill task. It is against this backdrop that twenty five security guards of the CDC set out for a 45 day military training at the Koutaba military training center on August 15, 2016. This is aimed at empowering the guards with professional skills for them to properly secure the corporation’s property, its 22.000 workers, equipment and other goods. “We learnt courses such as Topography, Transmission, Military Combat and Shooting. It was an incredible experience which has rendered us technically equipped for the task ahead of us. On this score, I wish to sincerely thank the General Manager of the CDC for giving us this once in a life time opportunity”, says the Security Services Manager, Peter FosahNjumbe.
The commander of the Koutaba military training center explained that, although two of the trainees were women, their performances were good. “From a general perspective”, he says, “I am very impressed because the least CDC trainee performed above average. Two of them have all the qualities necessary to be full time soldiers. Their manager, Mr Fosah demonstrated outstanding leadership skills, endurance, courage and physical strength transcending his age”.
The end of course ceremony which took place in the presence of the General Manager of the CDC was presided at by General Mpai Philip. According to the senior military officer, the CDC’s decision to give military training to its security guards is a strategic choice. He noted that, “the vastness of the plantations and the complexity of its field operations can create openings for men of the under world. My advice is that such trainings should be regular. There is need to permit the other security guards of the corporation to receive this training”. He further advised CDC management to closely monitor the trained security guards in order to evaluate and ascertain their post training effectiveness. Pending the use of modern fire arms, General Mpai suggested that efforts be made to provide the corporation’s security guards with all arms which are not proscribed by the law.
At the runway of the Koutaba military airport, the ceremony proper was brief but solemn in tone and pace. The highpoints included inspection of the guard of honour by General Mpai, singing of the national anthem, presentation of the first five trainees, military march past and a reception.
