Limbe - While battling with the issue of smuggled gorillas from the Cameroon forest to South Africa via Nigeria and Malaysia in 2001 and while the return of the smuggled Gorillas is still being awaited, four more wildlife smugglers have been arrested at the Bota Wharf in Limbe.

They were intercepted last Thursday 1 November by a combined team of forestry and wildlife, and the forces of law and order at the Bota wharf in Limbe. The animals impounded comprise of three monitor lizards, one dwarf crocodile and eight tortoises of deferent species.

The smugglers are reported to be businessmen based in Douala who were en route to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.  They confessed after serious interrogation that they have been in this business for sometime without facing any embarrassment.
Reports say somebody who spotted the smugglers with the animals at the wharf alerted the police who immediately informed the Divisional Delegation of Forestry and Wildlife.
 
The Divisional Chief of Wildlife, William Atemkeng immediately got his colleagues alongside security forces who stormed the wharf.

Accompanying this armed delegation were the Project Manager and veterinary Doctor of the Limbe Wildlife Centre, Felix Lankerster and the conservator, Vincent Fombah.
 
When this delegation arrived at the Bota wharf and surrounded the area, the smugglers attempted resisting offering the animals to the authority. However the police forced the smugglers to hand in the animals.
When the smugglers later realised the danger they were exposed to, they disappeared in thin air when every body was concentrating on the recovered animals.

According to a conservator all the animals seized are partially protected and not endangered, reason why very little attention was paid to the smugglers after the animals were got.
 
The monitor lizards were dispatched to the protected area of the Limbe River (between the Botanic Garden and the Wildlife Centre).
For the moment the remaining captured animals are at the quarantine of the Limbe Wildlife Centre.
According to the head keeper, Winston Fru, the animals only have a maximum period of 90 days at the quarantine after which they will be transferred to the center’s main cages or released in to the wild.
 
Meanwhile, the Bimbia-Bonadikombo community forest have been envisaged as favorites for the relocation of the animals back to the wild.
The conservator at the Limbe Wildlife Centre, Vincent Fombah lamented government’s slow reaction stating that for any animal seized by government and offered to his centre, they have to receive a written document from the wildlife delegation stating vital information on the animals in and the terms of keeping the animals. He said they have not received such documents from government on the seized animals.
 
http://www.edennewspaper.com/our-Arrested-Wildlife-Smugglers-Disappear-At-Limbe-Wharf.html