All in black attire, which signified mourning, the displaced people
of the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula, numbering over 500 marched to the
Governor’s Office, Calabar, Cross River State, to protest what they
described as perpetual neglect and the Federal Government’s
insensitivity to their plight.
Though they were accompanied by a band and carried placards with
different inscriptions, the protesting people sang mourning songs, wore
gloomy faces and called on the Holy Spirit to intervene in what they
described as injustice meted to them by the Nigerian government.
The International Court of Justice, ICJ, sitting in the Hague,
Netherlands, had, in October 2002, delivered a judgment over the
ownership of the disputed Bakassi Peninsula between Nigeria and
Cameroun. The judgment was in favour of Cameroun.
Before the people were evacuated from their ancestral home, the
Federal Government promised to resettle them. They were also assured
that everything that belonged to them would go with them in their new
resettlement place.
The handing over of Bakassi to Cameroun attracted condemnation from some quarters.
The ceding was said to be have been completed without the enabling
legislation by the National Assembly and the Green Tree Aggrement
entered into between Nigeria and Cameroun not ratified.
To appease the displaced people, in 2007, a Senate investigation
panel, headed by Senator Jubril Aminu, was set up and the Bakassi people
went to testify before the committee. But it seems the report remained
with the people that set it up about five years after as nothing has
been heard about it.
The people, out of frustration, then approached a Federal High Court,
Abuja, presided over by Justice G.M. Umar, for an interlocutory
injunction perpetually restraining the federal and Cross River State
governments, their agents, privy and allies from ceding Bakassi to
Cameroun. The matter, filed by Barrister Joseph Etene, Emmanuel Etene,
Ani Esin and others is still pending.
By October 10, 2012, it will be ten years since the ICJ delivered the
controversial judgment that ousted the Nigerian people from Bakassi,
and it is believed in some quarters that after ten years if no appeal is
filed the decision of the court can not be challenged again.
Three months to the expiration of the period allowed for appeal,
nothing has been done by the Cross River State Government and the
Federal Government to challenge the ICJ verdict and the people of
Bakassi do not have a particular place that they could call theirs .
Worse still, the oil wells located in the area where the displaced
people received royalty was arbitrarily ceded to the neighboring Akwa
Ibom State.
Frustrated the people, penultimate Thursday, marched to the Cross
River State Governor’s Office in Calabar, to protest their plight,
accusing the Federal Government of reneging on its assurance 10 years
after Bakassi Peninsula was ceded to Republic of Cameroun.
The protesters delivered documents to Governor Liyel Imoke for the
Presidency. The protesters were made up of women, professionals,
businessmen and members of the state House of Assembly.
One of their spokesman, Mr. Maurice Ekong, said though Cross River
people are reputed to be peaceful, law-abiding and calm people, they
were expressing “unusual anger” and would want their collective
positions to be made known to President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that
series of injustice had been meted to them by the Federal Government
after they had accepted to let go their ancestral home in national
interest.
“It is 10 years since we lost our rights, our belongings, our
heritage, and we are now displaced and dispossessed for Nigeria to be a
model in Africa,” he said.
The Bakassi Local Government chairman under which the place was
ceded, Chief Ani Esin, said they were vexed with the way Nigeria and
the Presidency had treated them because they were assured that the
exercise would be painless.
Esin said by that action, they lost their identity, home, property
and natural resources, stressing that their resources must follow them
step by step and no agreement should be held on the Gulf Guinea between
Nigeria and other countries without their involvement.
He said the Green Tree Agreement on Bakassi has not been ratified and
that no court in the country is competent to deliberate on any issue
affecting the area.
Representatives of women in the rally said that they were widows
because their husbands had been killed while no official legislation had
been passed on Bakassi and appealed to the Federal Government to give
them back their 76 oil wells.
Responding, Governor Imoke who just returned from Abuja and met the
protesters in his office, expressed surprise over the protest, saying
that what gravitated it must be very serious.
He commended them for the peaceful conduct of the protest, saying
that Cross River is one of the 36 states in the country and every one
has equal rights to freedom of expression as provided in the
constitution.
He promised to deliver the document which they presented to him to
President Jonathan as demanded by them and described Bakassi as a modern
local government and as such would not want to speculate on any issue
concerning it. According to him, the court is the last hope of the
people and common man and expressed an unreserved confidence in the
Supreme Court to do justice on matters involving the area.
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