THE Bakassi Freedom Fighters (BFF) has threatened to go back to the creeks of Bakassi as over 800 Nigerians were early this month sacked by the Camerounian Gendarmes from the hitherto disputed territory. Over 400 Nigerians were sent packing from Abana and other areas in Bakassi contrary to the Green Tree Agreement, which says that Nigerians are free to remain where they are in Bakassi without any molestation.
Reacting to the sacking and alleged killing of Nigerians in the peninsula, the Leader of the BFF General Franklin Dukuku on Thursday told The Guardian that his members would go back and defend their people if the Federal Government could not.
“We found out that our struggle has no meaning because the Federal Government promised us that as soon as we withdrew our arms, they were going to give adequate security to the waterways but nothing. Every day, our people cry complaining about nowhere to stay, so it’s a pity. Someday, if it continues like this for the next three months, I don’t think we will remain in the city. We will go back to the creeks to defend our people from the hands of the Camerounians,” he declared.
According to him, “the Camerounians always wrong our people, destroy their houses; they put fire and burn their houses, they rape our wives, they kill most of them, and about 250 of them are now in the displaced people estate in Ekpri Ikang.
“To me, I don’t have to say anything. I will only give time to the Federal Government. If they cannot react or protect the people, we are going back to the creeks because I cannot see my people suffering while the Federal Government will say amnesty and they will not react.”
Over 300 Nigerians, mostly fishermen, have swollen the Ekpri-Ikang returnees camp to over 700 persons following unabated onslaught on Nigerians living in the ceded Bakassi peninsula, according to Director-General, Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Vincent Aquah, MON.
He said the displaced persons who fled to Nigeria came with virtually no property as they were said to have merely smuggled their way out of the creeks.
The returnees who came with their wives and children said that due to the unwarranted harassment and brutal approach to Nigerians, they took very serious risk running away from the peninsula.
According to them, in order to leave the peninsula surreptitiously, they used hand dug canoes and rafters to escape at sea under very perilous situations.
The people thanked God for sparing their lives and making it possible to return to Nigeria into the waiting arms of the Cross River State Government, which through SEMA has been giving them succour.
The returnees, however, lamented that having lost all their means of livelihood, their future looked bleak.
They vowed that even though they are professional fishermen who have lived all their lives at sea, they would never return to the peninsula unless the Nigerian Government finds a way of pressurizing the Camerounian Government to respect the Green Tree Agreement.
Addressing the returnees at the camp, Aquah urged them to abide by the camp rules, which included restriction of movement within the camp and living harmoniously with one another.
Mr. Aquah said government has spent a lot of resources to provide all the necessary facilities at the camp for their comfort and urged them to, therefore, be prudent in their usage.
The Director-General commended the State Commissioner of Police who, through the Divisional Police Officer for Bakassi alongside other security operatives has been giving adequate security to the returnees at the camp.
In a remark, the President of the National Union of Nigerians in Cameroun, Chief Andrew Essien, said that formal report about the camp situation and the wellbeing of the returnees had been communicated to the Nigerian Ambassador in Cameroun.
Essien, who was represented by the secretary-general of the Union, Aston Ovung, expressed appreciation to the State Governor, Dr. Liyel Imoke for his effort at giving the displaced persons succor.