Appeal move belated, give us compensation – Bakassi people

Posted by admin Latest Politics Tuesday, October 9th, 2012

A surprising division emerged in the ranks of the people of Bakassi Peninsula, who are now making a different demand from the Federal Government.

Led by former presidential aide, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, the people, under the auspices of Bakassi People General Assembly, were now demanding that the Federal Government should forget about appealing the judgment and, instead, commence the process of the development of the Dayspring One and Two, which is the only place earmarked for the resettlement of the displaced Bakassi people.

Senator Ita-Giwa, addressing a crowd in her residence in Calabar, Cross River State, said “we equally ask the Federal Government to consider compensating Cross River State and Bakassi people in perpetuity for the loss of our dear land Bakassi and its attendant resources.”

The statement regretted that the call by many, especially their representatives at the National Assembly for the revisiting of the ICJ judgment was belated.

The statement recalled that the people of Bakassi “duly registered and voted in the wards as Bakassi Local Government Area in the state House of Assembly, National Assembly and presidential elections, only to be disenfranchised in the rescheduled governorship elections of February 2012 by some spurious court injunction.”

However, President Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday, was locked in a crucial secret zero-hour meeting with the committee he raised to consider a review of the 2002 judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ceded a part of Bakassi Peninsula to the Republic of Cameroon, as the window for such review officially closes today.

The team, being headed by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, was to consider the resolution of the Senate calling on Jonathan to appeal the judgment before the 10-year review opportunity closed.

Meanwhile, President Jonathan will, by 7.00 a.m today, address the nation.

A statement issued by Dr Reuben Abati, Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity), in Abuja, on Monday, said all television and radio stations in the country were advised to hook up to the network services of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) for the broadcast.

President Jonathan, though it was not known what may have prompted the broadcast, would likely address the issue of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on Bakassi Peninsula and the controversy surrounding the appeal over it.

It will be the second time in less than two weeks that the president would be holding a nationwide radio and television broadcast, having done so on October 1, on the occasion of the Nigeria’s Independence anniversary.wp_posts