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Why Nigerian troops are still in Bakassi, by Ajibola
By Rotimi
Durojaiye,
Lagos and Bassey
Inyang,
Calabar
Contrary to media reports that Nigerian
troops stationed at the disputed Bakassi Pennisula had been withdrawn, Chairman
of the Nigerian/Cameroun Mixed Commission, Prince Bola Ajibola, confirmed in
Lagos on Tuesday that “we are still very much there.”
Speaking with newsmen at the Presidential
lounge of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, Ajibola said Nigerian troops had
not moved out of the territory, despite the fact that dialogue was still going
on.
Reports have said the Nigerian government
has commenced the pullout of its soldiers from Bakassi peninsula in order to
beat the September 15 deadline for the handover of the territory to the
Republic of Cameroun.
The withdrawal of troops was also said to
have commenced last week and has been going on gradually.
But Ajibola said: “I am telling you
very reliably, the evidence is clear that we are still very much there, and we
have not moved out there, that is the truth.”
According to the former World Court Judge,
the World Court judgment was that the entire Bakassi Pennisula belonged to
Cameroun.
He, however, said Nigeria had been holding
dialogue with the Cameroun for the latter to show human face on the issue.
His words: “Having in mind that our
people have been there from time immemorial, they have lived all their lives
and the dialogue is such that we have respect for Cameroun and they have
respect for us and we are operating very actively and we commend them for their
efforts, thereby we are trying to see what we can do on the matter.”
He said Cameroun had already ceded about
3,700 square kilometers to Nigeria, adding, “We are now on the delimitation of the maritime area
between Nigeria and Cameroun”.
“What we are dealing with in the
Mixed Commission is that we must first of all look at it from the major start.
The first is the Lake Chad basin, we handed over to Cameroun 35 villages, which
in any way were there from the time the demarcation was effected and our people
moved in there,” he stressed.
Experts, however, said what was happening
at Bakassi was troops withdrawal and not complete military pullout of the area.
The development has nonetheless caused
apprehension among the 150,000 inhabitants of the settlement who felt the
Federal Government has abandoned them to their fate.
The Chairman of Bakassi Local Government
Area of Cross River State, Mr. Ani Esin, who confirmed the movement of Nigerian
troops from the territory, hurriedly held a meeting with the people where he
assured them that the Nigerian government would not abandon them.
It was gathered that the legislative
council of Bakassi has already sent a memo to the National Assembly over the
latest development.
The council led by Mr. Godwin Effiom
declared again, just as other prominent persons from the area that the people
would resist any attempt to cede them to Cameroun and make them refugees in
their land.
Aside the pullout of the soldiers, some
residents of Bakassi have started moving out of the area for fear of the
unknown.
The council chairman while addressing the
people assured them that the Federal Government would always stand by them,
assuring that there was nothing to fear.
Esin said Bakassi was their ancestral
homeland and the people would continue to remain in the place in line with the
desire of the Federal Government.
A couple of weeks ago, the Minister of
Defence, Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, had announced that Nigeria would pull out
its troops from the territory as one of the ways of complying with the judgment
of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered on October 10, 2002.
The two countries through the
Nigeria/Cameroun mixed commission have been working to ensure that the judgment
was implemented without the neighbouring countries taking up arms against each
other.
The Nigerian president has in the heat of the controversy
assured the people of the area that they would not be left to their fate.
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