FG disburses N2bn resettlement package to Bakassi indigenes

Posted by admin Latest Politics Thursday, September 6th, 2012

Attorney-General of the Federation, Bello Adoke, said the Federal Government had disbursed more than N2bn to communities affected in the border dispute in the Bakassi Peninsula.

Adoke said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Yaounde, Cameroon, on the sideline of the 29th session of Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission.

The justice minister said the government was working hard to ensure that the affected communities were properly resettled.

He said, “There is effort to resettle them and then there is also the UN effort at helping to resettle them effectively and that has been done; both government are working very hard.

“Nigeria had given over N2bn for resettlement of the affected population and had decided or opted to go to the Nigerian side of the Bakassi.”

He said both governments would continue to ensure security in the Bakassi Peninsula and that the implementation of the cooperation agreement on trans-border security between the countries would enable them to quickly stamp out security threats along the 2000km expanse of the border.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Efik Kingdom on Wednesday called on the Federal Government to appeal against the 2002 ruling by the International Court of Justice which ceded Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.

In a communique issued at the end of a meeting, leaders of the Efik Kingdom under the aegis of Etuboms’ Traditional Council, called on the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, explore every legal avenue and opportunity to seek a review of the ICJ judgment before October 10, 2012 deadline.

Also, the Obong of Calabar, Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi Otu V has called on the international community and the Federal Government to come to the aid of the “traumatised people of Bakassi’’.

The Obong made the call on Wednesday in Calabar at the end of a meeting of Efik Kingdom-in-Council held at the Palace of Otu, the Treaty King and Grand Patriarch of the Efik.

via Punchwp_posts