Help, Bakassi natives are dying, says paramount ruler

Barely two years after the disputed Bakassi peninsula was ceded to Cameroon by United Nations agency, the Bakassi natives been abandoned to faith and have cried out for help, saying that the Federal Government of Nigeria has not fulfilled its own part of the promise concerning their relocation. In August 14, 2008, Nigeria government finally handed over the Peninsula to neigbhouring Cameroon following International Court of Justice, ICJ, judgment delivered in October10, 2002 ceding the oil rich Bakassi to them. The judgment was principally based on Anglo-German agreement that soverignty over Bakassi did indeed rest with Cameroon.

Consequent upon the decision, the natives lost their ancestral homes and were relocated to Ikang in the old Akpabuyo local government for proper resettlement.
Since then, the promise by both International Community and Nigeria government to resettle the natives in line with international conventions seem a mirage as the people are said to have not only been resettled, but have been rejected by federal auhtourities.

The Paramount Ruler of the Bakassi, HRH Edet, who decried the plight of his people when PDP leadership, on sensitization tour of Bakassi Council, paid a courtesy call on him at Ikot Effiom palace, said “the situation of Bakassi after the handover is quite pathetic and horrifying because we have lost out completely and have no hope again in the Nigeria Federation.”
Bemoaning the hopeless situation they have found themselves in the last four years, he further said, “Look at my palace, it is an empty house, no furniture, no light and no seriousness of even completing it in the years ahead; look at the council secretariat, uncompleted since 2007 and council still operates from a primary school building.”

“The people of Bakassi have not benefited from the housing scheme meant for them; the real natives have been sidelined in the allocation process as the houses are now occupied by non-natives. The master plan drawn by state for development of Bakassi has been abandoned due to lack of funds. We are just there languishing in abject poverty and neglect.”

“We have re-located but not re-settled; there is nothing we can lay claim to as our benefit for scarifying our ancestral land for peace to reign, we have neither been compensated for all the lives and property lost in the cause of our struggle to retain our natural homes; we have no means of livelihood since our re-location because no provision for empowerment of the people.”
“The Green Tree Agreement has been flouted; nothing is heard about it anymore, the committee has not deemed it fit to find out how the people are faring, we are now the sacrificial lamb, we have been abandoned by international community and the federal government for peace to reign. But look at what we are facing now for what is not our fault.”

“Worst still,” he continued, “the presence of militants within our environment is posing great threat as one of my chiefs was beaten black and blue by the former freedom fighter members. For now we live in total fear.”
Equally pleading for help, the chairman of Bakassi local government area, Saviour Nyong, disclosed that the council secretariat started shortly after their relocation to Ikang has been abandoned by federal government and for now the council is operating from a primary school premises.
According to him, the paramount ruler palace has also been abandoned as the traditional institution has been thrown overboard.

Appealing to the ruling PDP team led by Ntufam Ekpo Okon for urgent intervention to ameliorate their plights, he warned that the Federal Government should not take their calmness as a sign of weakness as there is a limit to what they can endure and wondered why they should be used as a sacrificial lamb.
The State Chairman of PDP, Ntufam Ekpo Okon, however, promised to take their message to appropriate quarters and enjoined the royal fathers to continue to keep peace as Bakassi is very strategic to the country.