President Umaru Yar’Adua yesterday played host to a Cameroonian special envoy, Vice-Prime Minister Ahmadou Ali, over recent developments in the Bakassi Peninsula.
Cameroon reported that 20 of its military personnel were killed in the Peninsula in a November 12 attack, with a dozen others wounded.
The Peninsula was a subject of dispute between the two countries until the World Court gave its title to Cameroon. The Nigeria-Cameroon Mixed Commission, set up to resolve the dispute, also reached an agreement ceding the area to Cameroon. Nigerian authorities disclaimed the attack, suspected to have been carried out by militants operating in the Niger Delta area.
The envoy told State House correspondents after meeting with Yar’Adua, that he brought a message of goodwill to Nigeria. Ali described the attack as unfortunate, saying that the two countries needed to cooperate to track down perpetrators of the act.
He said resolution of the Nigerian Senate condemning the ceding of Bakassi to Cameroon was entirely an internal affair, to which his country would not react.The Senate recently condemned the ceding, alleging that the legislature was not carried along in the process.
Dec52007