A group of professionals committed to empowering Niger Delta indigenes, especially in the area of human capital development and skill acquisition, has called on President Umaru Yar’Adua to take issues of reported arms build up in Bakassi area of the volatile region seriously following recent alarm raised by Cross River Governor, Mr.Liyel Imoke on influx of arms into the area.
Speaking under the aegis of Oil Industry South South Business Association (OISSBA) in a statement jointly signed by the group’s national coordinator and public relations officer, Mr. Austin Ilenre and two others, the group warned that if the federal government and states in the region do not urgently and adequately compensate returnees from the ceded Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroun, the nation risked another armed struggle in the area.
The group stated: “Recently, the Cross River State Governor, Mr. Liyel Imoke, raised alarm over the influx of fire arms into the Bakassi Peninsula. The governor called on the federal government and security agencies to do something about it now before the problem aggravates.
“The Oil Industry South South Business Association (OISSBA) wants to warn that if this call by the governor is not taken seriously by relevant agencies to halt this trend in its infancy, the country risks the conflagration of hostilities in the Peninsula and this will amount to another daunting challenge in the crisis in the Niger Delta”.
OISSBA condemned what it described as “the tokenize approach to the resettlement of displaced Bakassi indigenes by both the Cross River State and federal government.”
It also urged both governments to take “more pragmatic steps to properly resettle and compensate those displaced by the federal government’s decision to hand the Peninsula over to Cameroun.