Ten days to the handover of the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon, Nigerians are relocating from the disputed area to Calabar and Ikang area of Cross River State, reports said yesterday.
“If there were Nigerians still in the peninsula as at Friday August 1, they cannot be more than five,” a boat operator in Ikang told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar.
The boat operator, Mr Ime Ekpo, said that at the Ikang jetty in New Bakassi Local Government Area of Cross River State, the last set of Nigerians relocated from the disputed area during the week.
“The pastor in our church, who was among those who refused to leave the area, eventually came out early this week, leading all those who remained behind with him,” he said.
The Bakassi peninsula has been a subject of controversy since the International Court of Justice in 2002 ordered Nigeria to hand it over to Cameroon. The handover, started by former President Olusegun Obasanjo�s government, is due to be completed on August 14.
Last week, a court in Abuja ordered that the handover be suspended pending the determination of a suit before the court. But the Federal Government said Nigeria would complete the process because the court order did not explicitly say that the handover be stopped. The boat operator declined to ferry a NAN correspondent, who insisted on going to Abana, former headquarters of Bakassi Local Government Area, on the grounds that he could not convey the journalist alone.
“There are no more people living in Abana, they have all come back to Ikang and Akpabuyo and even to Calabar, and no more business there. We do not usually have passengers going there anymore and I cannot carry you alone to the place,” he explained.
Ekpo, however, accepted to convey the correspondent if he would charter the boat for N20,000.
NAN reports that the low passenger traffic to the disputed area has raised the fare to Bakassi from N500 to N1, 000 per passenger in a 15-seater boat. Aside from the passenger problem, Ekpo said that high cost of petrol in the rural area contributed to the hike in transport fare to the peninsula.
He said that a litre of petrol is sold at N120 against the official price of N70 per litre and even with the high price petrol was still scarce.
NAN reports that at the Ikang camp of the displaced Bakassi people, hundreds of the affected persons, including children and women, were crammed into tight
spaces under poor sanitary conditions.
Construction work is in progress at the site of the new headquarters of the New Bakassi Local Government Area at Ekpri-Ikang, in apparent readiness for the withdrawal of Nigeria from the peninsula.
As the residents troop out of the contentious area, opposition political parties under the aegis of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) yesterday rejected ceding of Bakassi to Cameroun without a plebiscite.
In a statement in Abuja, CNPP�s National Publicity Secretary Osita Okechukwu also called on the Federal Government to obey last week�s court order stopping the handover.
Okechukwu faulted the argument of the Attorney General of the Federation Michael Aondoakaa to the effect that government was bound by the International Court of Justice ruling on Bakassi.
“The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) says no to handover of Bakassi and other Nigerian territories to Cameroon without plebiscite. We predicate our submission on the fact that the Greentree Agreement was a self-serving agreement, borne out of the desire of ex-president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to gain international recognition in his bid for life president.
“We may need to remind President Yar�adua that in the plebiscite of 1961, both areas of the north and south voted to remain in Nigeria. The people remain the most critical element in deciding whether to cede a territory or not, they were not consulted and yet, sovereignty rests with the people,” Okechukwu said.
Also yesterday, Minority Leader in the House of Representatives Mohammed Ndume asked the Federal Government not to hand over Bakassi to Cameroon until the National Assembly ratifies the Greentree Agreement.
Ndume said yesterday in Abuja, “If the Executive preaches rule of law and due process then they should do the right thing at the right time. The House has not said it is wrong to hand over or not, but what we are saying is that we should be given a copy of the treaty to go through and make adequate recommendations to the executive.”
Source: Daily Trust