By CrossRiverWatch Admin
The Bakassi Strike Force, a militant group in the Niger Delta, on Tuesday expressed a desire to lay down arms if the concerns of Bakassi returnees are addressed under a scheme midwifed by international mediators.
A leader of BSF, Simple Benjamin, aka “Humble Lion G1” in a telephone interview on Tuesday told Premium Times that, the grievances of the group had nothing to do with vandalism of national asset.
He said it was regrettable that military authorities had killed several innocent people under the guise of fighting members of the militant group.
He urged the federal government to withdraw the military from his community as they were in the struggle for self-determination and posed no threat to national security.
Mr. Benjamin, who spoke from his camp in the creeks of Southern Cross River, said that unlike other militant groups, they had no record of destroying oil installations and were not involved in molesting innocent citizens.
He said that despite offering to work with the government to address the concerns of the Bakassi returnees, the military had been on his trail.
He said that his group had been agitating against the poor implementation of the Green Tree Agreement after Nigeria ceded Bakassi to Cameroon, which left Nigerian in the peninsular without proper resettlement.
“Our grievance against the federal government has to do with the way Nigeria ceded our ancestral land to Cameroon without recourse to the feelings and rights of the people to self-determination.
“Under the Green Tree agreement, there were steps to be taken to ensure that the fundamental rights of the returnees were protected but the government has not fulfilled its obligations under the agreement.
“We have not resorted to destroying national asset(s) like other Niger Delta militants because it does not make sense, if we destroy assets that yield revenue, how will the federal government get money to fund the projects we yearn for?” Mr. Benjamin said.
Meanwhile, the Joint Military Task Force deployed to the Niger Delta, Operation Delta Safe, said that it has degraded the capacity of the group and has intensified operations to flush out members of the group.