ABUJA — THE House of Representatives yesterday summoned Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Samuel Afolayan; Chief of Defence Staff, General Alexander Ogomudia and Director General of the State Security Services to appear before it to explain the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of an oil tanker detained by security authorities in connection with alleged stealing of crude oil.
The summons followed a motion brought before the House by Mr. Halims Agoda and eight others over the missing ship.
Also yesterday, the House adopted a motion, asking the Federal Government not to pull out Nigerian troops from the disputed Bakasi Peninsula or hand over the territory to Cameroun. It said Nigeria should, instead, ask the UN to conduct a plebiscite in the area to ascertain the wishes of the people.
An oil tanker was seized by Nigerian Naval authorities for loading stolen 15,000 barrels of crude oil fromthe country. Fifteen Russians are currently standing trial over the alleged theft. Some people, however, stormed the vessel where it was being detained under guard and disappeared with it.
According to Mr. Agoda, the disappearance of the ship while it was being guarded by Nigerian Armed Forces was a national embarrassment and those responsible for the major security breach should be brought to book. He noted that the incidence might be one of several others taking place in the country’s oil industry without detection.The House, therefore, mandated its Committee on Navy to investigate the circumstance leading to thedisappearance of the ship and recommend appropriate sanctions for those involved in facilitating thedisappearance.
The committee is to report to the House within four weeks.
Don’t withdraw our troops from Bakassi
Meanwhile, less than two weeks to the planned withdrawal of Nigerian troops from the Bakassi peninsula and the handover of the territory to Cameroun, the House yesterday asked the Federal Government not to pull out of the territory but to call for a United Nations supervised plebiscite in the region to ascertain the wishes of the people of the area.
The resolution came on the heels of a vow by the paramount ruler of Bakassi Kingdom, Etinyin Etim Okon, that the people of the region would resist any attempt by the Federal Government to hand them over to Cameroun.
Moving a motion for the plebiscite, the member representing Bakassi in the House of Representatives,Mr. Essien Ayi, said as a local government listed in the constitution of the Federal Republic, it could not be ceded without meeting the necessary requirement stipulated in the constitution.
He prayed the House to urge the Federal Government not to pull out of the region unless all the conditions precedent for so doing as contained in the 1999 Constitution were met. The House in adopting the motion urged the Federal Government to protect the interest of the Bakassi people who, it said, have the constitutional rights to live and belong to the Federal Republic of Nigeria,which is the land of their birth.
The House also mandated the speaker to lead a delegation of the House to meet with the president todiscuss the matter. The motion was unanimously endorsed without a single dissenting voice.Addressing a press conference after the adoption of the motion, Mr. Ayi who was flanked by thetraditional ruler of the Bakassi Kingdom said the destiny of the Bakassi people who have lived all theirlives in the Bakassi region could not be determined by the mixed commission within the period stipulated in the mixed commission timetable. “In this time and age, the people of Bakassi cannot be thrown from one sovereignty to another sovereignty like items of trade. The people of Bakassi cannot afford to be made slaves in their traditional domain or be subjected to Camerounian administration or laws which will automatically rob them of their right to property,” he observed.
The legislator warned that if not properly handled, the country might witness a crisis that would be worse than what is going on in the Darfur region of Sudan.In his comment, the paramount ruler of the Bakassi Kingdom, Etinyin Etim Okon, vowed that the people of the region would resist any attempt by any body to force them to Cameroun.
