CALABAR—THE Obong of Calabar and grand patriarch of Efik Kingdom, His Eminence Ekpo Abasi Otu, has said that the Efik were considering the invitation by the people of Southern Cameroon to form a republic as the Federal Government had sold their ancestral land to Cameroon.

The Obong, at the solemn assembly organised by the Efik Kingdom and the entire Bakassi people through the Save Bakassi Group, yesterday, in Calabar, Cross River State, after the Federal Government refused to file for a review of International Court of Justice, ICJ, verdict, said the people were weighing the options available to them.

Meantime, Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State, has, advised the people of Bakassi to remain calm, saying that the government and the elected representatives of the state were committed to the course and will continue to pursue it until it was redressed.

Governor Imoke, who gave the assurance, when the royal fathers and the people of Bakassi, led by the kingmakers of Efik Kingdom after a solemn assembly, went on a protest march to the governor’s office over Federal Government’s decision to hand over Bakassi to Cameroon, said that the challenge of Bakassi remained with the people and that it was a challenge that must be confronted.

He described October 10, 2012 as a very important day in the history of the people adding that as the displaced people of Bakassi and the Efik Kingdom decided to commit their challenge unto God with prayers, God will look into their plights and console them.

The governor said that in time of seeming adversity, there will still be something good, adding that the problem of Bakassi was a challenge that had stayed for 10 years, which had gone international.

Coordinator of Save Bakassi Group, Mr. Maurice Ekong told Vanguard that it was only the beginning of a long drawn battle for sovereignty as the fate of Bakassi could not be foreclosed by the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, who was not prepared to work on the case and for Bakassi people.

He said: “We have a right to approach the United Nations with our case as indigenous people, whose culture and history have come under threat of extinction from Cameron.

“The denial of Bakassi people their Nigerian citizenship makes mockery of Nigerian government’s declaration of Citizen Diplomacy as a cardinal plank of its foreign policy. A government has a responsibility to defend its citizens and the people of Bakassi have all these years seen themselves as Nigerians, but we have been deceived on a grand scale.”

Abasi Otu, who was represented on the occasion by Chairman of Etubom Traditional Council, Etubom Bob Duke, said that they had to embrace their fate after being deceived and rejected by the Federal Government of Nigeria over the ceded oil-rich island, which they described as their heritage and ancestral home.

Also speaking at the event attended by prominent Efik sons and daughters in the country and in the diaspora, Chief Barbara James, who had liaised with the wife of the former Prime Minister of Britain, Mrs. Blair to get international lawyers and assemble materials to be presented at the Hague for the review, which the country turned down, said that already, they were taking the matter to the United Nations and African Union to agitate for self determination as well as report cases of human rights abuse.

Chief James said: “We shall rise from our shell that justice must reign. We had lost Bakassi, we had lost 76 oil wells, this injustice cannot continue. We are being advised by the wife of the former British Prime minister, Mrs. Tony Blair. We are advised at the international level.

“The Federal Government has to tell us why we were not protected. Enough is enough. We prepared a 12-paragraph document, legal brief, a very strong brief and evidence of human rights abuses to submit, but we were told that if Nigeria appealed against the judgment, it would not have good relationship with the international diplomatic corps.

“We have options, we are going to pursue these options at the United Nations and African Union. We have international legal experts advising us. This injustice will not stand.”

Also speaking, former Senator representing Cross River South, Senator Bassey Henshaw, recalled that when the Cameroon security agents were killing and maiming Bakassi people, it was the late Gen. Sani Abacha who went to repel the Cameroon soldiers to protect the people and create Bakassi Local Government Area.

gbanikiti: If it is possible for them to form a republic,then they should go ahead! Is it not better to be on your own than to join a cursed entity like nigeria? Am sure if this happens,other ethnicities might be forced to do the same.

gbanikiti: If it is possible for them to form a republic,then they should go ahead! Is it not better to be on your own than to join a cursed entity like nigeria? Am sure if this happens,other tribes might be forced to do the same.

gboss4sure: Nigeria will gradually break up so that we can have peace and rest at last

afam4eva:
I agree with you. Nigerians have this follow-follow attitude. The moment Bakassi becomes a republic, every other region in Nigeria will also want to seek self-determination.

afam4eva: One thing i noticed with the Nigerian government is that they always want to look good in the eyes of the international community without protecting the bpeople that they're mandated to protect. I guess Jonathan will get an award for not appealing this Bakkassi case. I wonder if Obasanjo was from Bakkassi, if he would have just let it go like that...Will Jonathan also have failed to appeal if he was from there? It shows how selfish and unreasonable the Nigerian government is.

I think what the Bakkassi people need to do is to weigh their options that take the one that will be most beneficial to them even if it means being sovereign, i support them 100%. If they're waiting for the Nigerian government to come to their aid, then they can as well wait for satan.

CHESSBOARD: I know we IGBOS will not start any break-up in Nigeria again but we will support any Group who want to break out from this shiity country, and in case you dont know Cross River is more South Eastern than all the Igbos states( check ur map).... You know what that means, we can colonize them an d form a better and free country

hardbody:

And that is the exact reason why this will not be allowed to happen, neither by Nigeria, nor Cameroun. I feel bad for the Bakassians and i will hate GEJ forever for this singular act of selfishness and cowardice. God is watching him.

afam4eva:
I agree with you. Nigerians have this follow-follow attitude. The moment Bakassi becomes a republic, every other region in Nigeria will also want to seek self-determination.

Orblonde: Is it true that the Obong gave away Bakkassi in 1914 in an agreement with the british and what effort did he make over the last 10 years to address problem. I am concerned that he may have done very little, very late. No offense to anyone's sensitivities here as know its a painful time for many people.

nnenna.1:


You are looking for trouble, I see.