by crossriverwatch admin
Demonstration by the people of Bakassi against the demarcation of the maritime boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon in respect of the Bakassi peninsula is going on now at Ikang, Akpabuyo Local Government Council where the Joint Technical Team comprising United Nations, Nigerian and Cameroonian officials have stopped over to pay a courtesy visit on the Chairman of Bakassi Local Government Area.
The demonstrators numbering more than 300 carried placards with inscriptions such “United Nations Leave Bakassi”; “Bakassians are Nigerians not Cameroonians”; Bakassi have the inalienable right to self determination”.
The demonstrators who are led by a Youth Leader, Augustine Omini Iwara condemned the United Nations and the Federal Government of Nigeria for treating the people of Bakassi with so much contempt and scorn.
He told crossriverwatch on the phone that: “it is surprising that the demarcation exercise is being undertaken despite the case filed by the people of Bakassi asserting their right to self determination in accordance with international law. We will do everything within our capacity to ensure that we do not allow this impunity to go on.
We insist that the federal government must obey its own laws by not pushing ahead with a matter that is pending before a court”.
He called on the United Nations to as a matter of urgency conduct a referendum to enable the people of Bakassi decide where they want to belong. He vowed that nobody can force the people of the territory to become Cameroonians by compulsion.
Crossriverwatch gathered that while a section of the demarcation team is visiting the Bakassi Local Government Chairman and other opinion leaders in Bakassi and Cross River to give the false impression that they are carrying the natives along in the process, another team has already travelled by Sea to commence the enumeration today.
The team is suspected to have employed the visits to stakeholders as a decoy to divert attention from those who are insisting on following due process and the rule of law.