There has been renewed fight over the ownership of Bakassi Peninsula as Cameroon gendarmes launched an attack on Efot Ebot Ikot village in Bakassi with 11 persons feared dead and about 1,800 displaced. Early last month, there had been misunderstanding between the Bakassi people living in the Peninsula and the Cameroon Government. The Cameroon Government is accusing Nigerians of not paying tax while Nigerians are complaining of double taxation and all sorts of human indignities meted out to them by the gendarmes.
The development had led to series of confrontations between the Cameroonian authorities and the Nigerian nationals with over 300 fishing boats and nets seized by Cameroon security agents. Disclosing this while addressing newsmen during the visit to the displaced people of Bakassi at the camp at St. Mark’s Primary School, Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State, former senator representing Southern Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, said it was a pity that Cameroon
government was not respecting the Green Tree Agreement and rather took pleasure in engaging in all sorts of human rights abuses. Ita-Giwa described the situation as being unbearable as the people were living in deplorable condition.
She said children and pregnant women had no water, food or clothing with neither medicine nor good sanitary condition to produce succor to the displaced people. Ita-Giwa urged the Federal Government and the international community to take proactive steps to resettle the people at Dayspring Island where the refugees wanted to be resettled. “It is not their fault that the land was ceded to the Cameroons. Our people don’t want to remain here and continue to beg for alms.
They want to be resettled in a place they can become self-sustaining.” Confirming that 11 persons might have died in the process, the camp master for the displaced people of Bakassi, Chief Etim Okon Ene, said the Bakassi people needed restoration against the Green Tree Agreement. Also speaking, the paramount ruler of Bakassi, His Highness Etiyin Etim Okon Edet said he was happy that President Goodluck Jonathan set up the Presidential Committee on Resettlement of Bakassi People, which Senator Giwa was a member but lamented that the implementation process of resolution on the matter had been very slow.
To cushion their hardship, the Director General of the Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Vincent Aqua, had sent relief materials to the displaced people. The materials include mattresses, cartons of Indomie Noddles, bags of salt, rice, garri, blankets. Aqua urged the refugees to be calm as the state government was aware of their plight, stressing that very soon government was going to give directives to Akpabuyo and Bakassi Local Government Council authorities to come up with palliative measures that would alleviate the sufferings of the people.
Liason Officer, National Union for Nigeria and Cameroon, Prince Aston Joseph, lamented that his people who previously could fish within the length and breadth of the waters had now been restricted from going to those regions that were viable for making a big cash, as they were no longer allowed to go beyond a particular boundary. Aston complained that Bakassi people had so far lost over 300 fishing boats and nets to the gendarmes and urged the Federal Government to come to the rescue of three women who had so far given birth to babies at the camp.
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