Bigger civil war may break out over Bakassi – C’River natives

 

Some prominent natives of Cross River State under the aegis of Bakassi Support Group at the weekend warned of a likely break out of war in the Bakassi Peninsula.

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This is as they said the case regarding the area, which the International Court of Justice ruled in favour of Cameroon in 2002, was not yet over.
Deadline to appeal for review of the judgment elapsed on October 10, 2012.
The Federal Government, however, said, it had no fresh facts to appeal the ruling.
Two prominent members of the group – Senator Ewa Hensaw and Ambassador Nkoyo Toyo – told newsmen that they were surprised that the Nigerian Government had not considered the security implications of the ceding of the peninsula to the Republic of Cameroon.

Henshaw said: “What is happening in the Bakkassi may turn out to be four times that of Biafra. Our interaction with the people of the peninsula has revealed that they are talking of self determination.”
He stressed that though the Nigerian Government had jettisoned the people in the Bakassi Peninsula, they might consider the option of seeking for self determination as provided for in the Green Tree Agreement.

The senator criticised the Federal Government, especially the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, for refusing to file for a review of the International Court of Justice ruling of 2008, which gave Cameroon the right over the Bakassi Peninsula.
He noted that the manner the Federal Government handled the issue was disappointing and unexpected.
Henshaw contended that the impression the government gave to the public was that Nigeria’s foreign policy was meant,“to please foreign interests and not to safeguard its citizens’ rights.”
He reiterated that the residents of   Bakassi, having been jettisoned by the Nigerian Government, might seek for self determination as provided for in the Green Tree Agreement.
Henshaw said the passing of the October 10 window for the appeal for a review of the ICJ ruling raised a number of questions.
One of such he said was whether the Federal Government was supposed to prepare a brief.
And if it was to do, why did it not? Was it a case of the undermining the directive of the President and the National Assembly, as well as the Nigerian Bar Association?

-The Sun

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