Angry rep blasts FG for ignoring displaced Bakassi

Apparently disappointed over the long wait in resettling displaced Bakassi indigenes, a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Essien Ayi, berated the Federal Government’s silence over the delay.
Ayi, who represents Bakassi, Akpabuyo and Calabar South federal constituency of Cross River State in the National Assembly, said it was unfortunate that the Federal Government had only paid lip services to the plight of the people 12 years after ceding the peninsular to Cameroon.


The lawmaker spoke in an interview on Thursday in Calabar.

He lamented that while hundreds of the displaced persons had been camped temporarily at St Mark’s Primary School in Akpabuyo Local Government Area, others who could not bear the hardship had relocated to squat with their relatives in neighbouring Ikang and Calabar South with the hope that they would soon be resettled.

Ayi expressed worry that despite the trauma the people were passing through with the ceding of their homeland, the Federal Government was not showing enough commitment.

The lawmaker, who said he had through numerous motions in the House, drew the attention of the Federal Government to the plight of the Bakassi people, added that if it was possible the Bakassi people would have themselves approached the International Court of Justice over the neglect.

He said, “Few years ago, I moved a motion for the speedy resettlement of the displaced people. I later moved a motion asking the FG to take step for the review of that ICJ judgement in 2012. I also moved a motion for a plebiscite to be conducted for Bakassi people. Those motions were overwhelmingly passed but nothing concrete came out on the side of the government.

“After their refusal to appeal the judgment, the government decided to set up a so-called committee despite the fact that many phantom committees had been set up previously without any tangible result.
“Till date no effort has been made to speedily implement the recommendation of the immediate past committee, which was headed by the vice-president, Mr. Namadi Sambo. People are suffering and living in an open place without any form of amenity and government is busy playing politics with their collective destiny.

“I tell you the home truth now; the federal government is not sincere over the issue of Bakassi. If they were, they would have pursued, at least, the resettlement to its logical conclusion. Today, they would say Dayspring, tomorrow, Ikang. They keep on dribbling and taunting the traumatized people. The federal government is not interested in Bakassi, that’s all,” he stated angrily.