The House of Representatives’ Committee on Treaty and Agreement, on Saturday, met with the Efik Elders and Leaders’ Forum in Calabar to investigate the plight of the Bakassi Peninsula residents.
Yacoob Alebiosu, the chairman of the committee, said?the committee was in Cross River to look into the Green Tree Agreement that came as a result of the International Court of Justice decision on the Bakassi Peninsula.
“We are here to look into things from the Green Tree Agreement’s point of view, to see whether they are in our favour or not, and how it affects the people of Bakassi,” he said.
According to him,?the committee had visited the affected?community and would make recommendations to the House of Representatives.
The lawmaker said it would be premature for the committee to comment on anything before it had been able to sit?and put together everything that it saw and documented.
“We have heard?how the agreement has been reached and we have requested for proper documentation for use at the leadership and the entire House of the Representatives,” Alebiosu said.
“The Bakassi people should also reach out to others: traditional leaders should reach out to other traditional leaders; the State Governor should reach out to the Governors’ Forum, [and] human rights activist on this.
“Let all hands be on deck. We are going to do our best possible to make sure we actualise the dream on this Bakassi issue.”
Earlier, a member of the committee, Ifeoluwa Arowosoge, had assured the people of Bakassi that something positive would be done.
Arowosoge?also advised against the recourse to declaration of a Republic of their own by the Bakassi people, adding that the consequences are usually very painful.
“I will advise that we take all effort to re-appeal the judgement, because going away to become a Republic is not going to be that easy,” he said.
“It will bring war and it will bring so many other things that might lead to death and loss of lives and property. That will be our last solution.”
In his response, Emmanuel Edem, leader of the forum, said that the visit of the House of Representatives was timely and auspicious, adding that at no time was a plebiscite conducted to determine the choice of the primary indigenous owners of Bakassi between Nigeria and Cameroon.
“At no time in the history of the Efik Kingdom, of which Bakassi is part, or the British Colonial history, German or Nigerian history were the owners of Bakassi consulted before the enactment of any treaty involving the disposal of their territory,” he lamented.
“During the past 10 years under Cameroon control, Nigerian citizens still resident in Bakassi have been dehumanised through unrelenting, physical and mental torture inflicted by agents of Government, thus making life unbearable for the people.
“By this attitude, it is clear that the Cameroon authorities are interested only in the natural resources, excluding the people of Bakassi. The so-called Green Tree Agreement of June 2006, having not been domesticated by the Nigerian National Assembly as prescribed by the Nigerian Constitution, is unbinding on Nigeria.”
Edem?told the House of Representatives Committee?that Efik Elders and Bakassi people wanted Bakassi back.
In his response, Ekpo Bassey, the Chairman of the Bakassi Local Government Area, appealed to the committee to look critically at the Anglo-German Treaty of 1913, which was signed between the British and German governments.
