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Cameroun rejects joint border patrol
with Nigeria
By Oguwike Nwachuku Group News Editor
and Maxwell Oditta
Senior Correspondent, Lagos
Cameroun may have rejected Nigeria�s request for joint border patrol
with its police and gendarmes, according to police sources.
They said the rejection of the overture is evident in Yaounde�s
refusal to receive a delegation of Inspector General of Police Tafa Balogun.
The three-man delegation, led by Adamawa State Commissioner of Police
Hafiz Ringim, has been waiting in the last five weeks for signals from police
and military authorities in Yaounde. It has relocated to Abuja from Lagos in
the continued wait.
Against the views of his subordinates, Balogun told journalists
recently that the delegation was already in Yaounde negotiating terms for the
border operation and expressed optimism that the host country would
appreciate the overture.
But a member of the team disclosed that those selected for the trip
are still in the country, even as the officer adopted his usual euphemism,
rehashing the statement that Yaounde would send the long-awaited signal in no
distant future.
According to police sources, the Camerounians are adverse to any
joint operations with Nigeria that may compromise the October 8, 2002 ruling
of the International Court of Justice on the land and maritime border case
between the two nations.
That ruling at The Hague ceded the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula and
several villages in the Lake Chad region to Cameroun.
Cameroun often reminds Abuja of the need to comply with the mandate
of the international community by withdrawing Nigeria�s forces and
administration from Bakassi.
�If we are talking about joint operations with Cameroun along the
border, then we will not only have to provide military hardware and patrol
equipment to that country, as approved for Niger Republic and Chad. We will
also have to concede to Cameroun that Rio del Rey and not Akpa Yafe is the
boundary between our country and theirs, along the Bight of Bonny,� a senior
police officer reasoned.
In an interview on Sunday, Force Public Relations Officer Chris
Olakpe said enough preparation had been put in place by the authorities to
ensure that the team left for Cameroun.
However, he said he �did not have the information that the proposal
for the joint patrol had been rejected�, adding: �The team must have left,
but I cannot confirm when it departed�.
He insisted that Balogun made enough arrangement for the
success of the exercise.
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