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  • Plight of Bakassi ‘unholy, unjust’, says C’River Deputy Gov

    Plight of Bakassi ‘unholy, unjust’, says C’River Deputy Gov

    Cross River State Deputy Governor Peter Odey has described as “unholy and unjust” the plight of the displaced inhabitants of Bakassi Peninsula following its ceding to the Republic of Cameroon and the consequent loss of 76 oil wells.

    Odey, who spoke at the inaugural Nigeria International Coastal Border Platform Summit in Uyo, lamented the condition of the residents as an “international, African, and national abandonment.”

    Speaking before an audience of coastal state Deputy Governors, maritime experts, security chiefs, lawmakers, and traditional rulers, Odey said: “We talk about international cooperation, yet the people of Bakassi have been left behind—forgotten by both the international community and the Nigerian state,” he declared. “Since the unjust and unholy ceding of the Bakassi Peninsula in 2012, our people have been living as strangers in their own country. It is an affront to justice and humanity.”

    The Deputy Governor painted a stark picture of the conditions in Bakassi, lamenting the absence of any meaningful intervention from either national or international bodies.

    “That area has been abandoned without a single form of sustained support—no international assistance, no African solidarity, no tangible action from our own national government,” he said, his voice heavy with emotion. “We cannot, in good conscience, continue to hold conferences and issue communiqués while a whole community languishes in despair.”

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    Odey urged the newly inaugurated platform to go beyond rhetoric and make the Bakassi question a central focus of its agenda.

    “I hope and I pray that part of our deliberations here will look into the plight of the impoverished and forgotten people of the Bakassi Peninsula,” he said. “May these deliberations inspire innovative solutions, foster unity, and pave the way for lasting partnerships that protect our oceans, respect our borders, and restore dignity to the displaced.”

    The summit, declared open by Akwa Ibom Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, attracted a high-powered delegation, including the Director-General of the National Boundary Commission, Surv. Adamu Adaji; a representative of the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral E. I. Ogalla; lawmakers from coastal states; top government functionaries; and community leaders. The event featured technical paper presentations by maritime and border governance experts.

    At the close of proceedings, the Chairman of the Platform and Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, presented a 10-point communiqué, co-signed by deputy governors of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Lagos, Ogun, and Ondo States. The resolutions included harmonizing maritime laws, strengthening community-based intelligence networks, integrating climate resilience into border policy, and dedicating part of maritime tax and oil revenue to coastal security.

    While the summit’s resolutions spanned a broad spectrum of maritime governance priorities, Odey’s words hung in the air, a reminder of the human face behind border politics.

    “We can protect our waters and secure our borders,” he concluded, “but if we fail to protect the humanity of those who call these borders home, we will have failed in the very mission that brought us here.”

    The Nigeria International Coastal Border Platform Summit, though focused on broader maritime and border governance issues, now bears the added weight of Bakassi’s story—one that Rt. Hon. Peter Odey insisted must no longer be told in the past tense.

  • Gov Otu, Naval Chief hold talks on boosting security, economic progress in Bakassi

    Gov Otu, Naval Chief hold talks on boosting security, economic progress in Bakassi

    Governor Bassey Otu of Cross River State and Nigeria’s Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla, met in Abuja to discuss enhancing security for economic growth along Cross River’s coastal regions, particularly around the Bakassi Peninsula, which borders Cameroon.

    The talks emphasised strengthening collaboration to ensure security and boost economic activity, especially around the proposed Bakassi Deep Seaport.

    During his address at the Naval Headquarters, Governor Otu highlighted the presence of key naval establishments in Calabar, including the Nigerian Navy Ship Victory and the Naval War College, advocating for a stronger naval presence along the Nigeria-Cameroon maritime border to address security gaps in Bakassi, where the Nigerian side remains under-protected.

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    Governor Otu underscored the significance of obtaining naval assistance for coastal investments, port development, and safeguarding national oil assets and platforms within the state.

    The meeting further stressed the necessity for cooperation to generate employment opportunities, stimulate economic growth in the state, ensure regional stability in the Bakassi coastal area, and foster collaboration with Cameroon to address mutual security challenges crucial for realizing the proposed Bakassi Deep Seaport.

    In response, the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, pledged the Nigerian Navy’s cooperation with the Cross River State Government to initiate bathymetric surveys of the new Bakassi Islands within Nigeria’s territory to drive economic prosperity as requested by the Governor. He expressed gratitude to the Governor for the visit and reiterated the Nigerian Navy’s dedication to ensuring a robust naval presence, particularly along the coastal areas, border regions, and the vicinity of the proposed Bakassi Deep Seaport.

    The State government clarified that the Bathymetric/ Seafloor mapping, imaging, and survey provide precise data that enhances navigation and dredging operations, while also supporting various land projects. It further explained that bathymetric surveys are valuable for Dock and Harbour Engineering, Flood Management and Prevention, River Maintenance, Irrigation, and Water Power.

  • Why Nigeria lost Bakassi to Cameroon

    Why Nigeria lost Bakassi to Cameroon

    • By Sunday Olagunju

    Sir: Why did Nigeria lose Bakassi to Cameroon? It is a million-naira question that will continue to resonate in the minds of millions of Nigerians for many years to come.

    For many years, Nigeria and Cameroon locked horns over the ownership of Bakassi Peninsula, a rich peninsula at the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. What perhaps baffled most Nigerians over the Bakassi judgment was that at the time of the judgement, a Nigerian, late Prince Bola Ajibola, was the president of the International Court of Justice at the Hague, Netherlands.

    The controversy about ownership of Bakassi between Nigeria and Cameroon began at independence in 1960. At independence, the Southern Cameroon which was administered alongside colonial Nigeria by Britain, based on the decision of the league of Nations in 1919, opted to join its northern brethren after a referendum.

    Bakassi is located in Southern Cameroon which shares border with Cross River State. In 1962, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aja Nwachukwu wrote to Cameroon, accepting its sovereignty over Bakassi. The 1962 letter by Nwachukwu was presented at the World Court at the Hague, The Netherlands as an exhibit. That evidence was before the court openly and patently. All our maps indicted the excision of Bakassi from Nigeria.

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    The evidences against Nigeria were too difficult and weighty to wriggle out of the corner which they put it. The idea of a Nigerian, Justice Bola Ajibola being the president of the world court simply amounted to a lone voice in the wilderness because of the incontrovertible evidences which Nwachukwu letter had put Nigeria.

    Yet what seemed patently intriguing was that successive Obong of Calabar and their chiefs had always been in Bakassi since the 16th century and had never at any point ceded Bakassi to a colonial authority as a colony like Lagos in 1851.

    The loss of Bakassi to Cameroon, ipso-facto could be blamed on Aja Nwachukwu, Nigeria’s first Minister of Foreign Affairs who had acted unconscionably by ceding Bakassi to Cameroon out of pure historic folly. Bakassi was an undeserved loss to Nigeria and generations yet unborn and history will be unkind to him for unilaterally throwing away Nigeria’s patrimony on a platter of indiscretion.

    •Sunday Olagunju

    Ibadan, Oyo State.

  • Bakassi returnees cry for help

    Bakassi returnees cry for help

    Bakassi returnees and internally displaced persons of Bakassi in Cross River State said they have again been displaced and attacked by their host community from the government acquired farm settlement in Ikpa Nkanya Eyo Edem of erstwhile Akpabuyo Local Government of Cross River State.

    Leader of the returnees and camp leader, Chief Etim Ene, who said he is roaming the streets of Calabar in need of government attention, told The Nation that they were attacked and driven out from their farmland by the indigenes of Ikpa Nkanya Eyo Edem community, their host.

    He said they had received training to have knowledge of greenhouse farming with the support of the United Nations, facilitated by a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Care for Social Welfare, and their crops had been doing well to the envy of the host community, who demanded inclusion and complained that the state government was yet to pay compensation for the land acquired as farm settlement.

    “This has been the bone of contention. In fact, some leaders of the host community, upon realising that the farming project has become a reality, sought to stop the project and demanded 30 per cent inclusion, even though five per cent inclusion was given for their women, who joined that training given to 200 Bakassi women by the UN Programme on Women Household Empowerment Project,” Ene said.

    “Our prayer is that the state government should intervene, to enable us go back to our farms, the source of our food and sustenance,” he added.

    The returnees’ leader said they had registered as a cooperative called Bakassi Returnees Less Privileged Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society Limited, which helped them to get donor support from bodies.

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    “The state government under the administration of former Governor Ben Ayade built and furnished 50 units of two bedroom flats as estate for the Bakassi returnees in Ifiang.

    It was handed over to us and we had some flats being occupied by up to 10 families in one building. Unfortunately for us, Ifiang people vandalised the estate in the guise of ‘End SARS protest’ in 2020 and we had to return to the settlement that was acquired by the state government in IkpaNkanya.

    “Our continuous plea and cries attracted Care for Social Welfare, an NGO, which brought in the United Nations that trained 200 of our women for the first of phase of Women Household empowerment project. They proceeded to procure tools, seedlings, fertilisers, chemicals and equipment, employ the service of Cross River Basin Authority tractor for ploughing 10 hectare for practical investment.

    “All of these have been destroyed. We have lost the following in the recent attack, 10.000 stands of water melon plants, 200,000 stands of peppers (in nursery), 10,000 stands of cucumbers, 5,000 stands of pepper farm harvested, 100 stands of paw-paw damaged, 1,000 stands of plantain harvested by them.

    “Damaged at our garri mill are fryer, presser, grinding machine, shifter, damages of shelter.

    “At our poultry store/fertiliser store, we lost 3,000 bags of farm yard manure from chicken, 100 birds, 200 cartons of insecticide, among others,” Eno said.

  • Killings and torture in Bakassi

    Sir: On March 29, 1994, when Cameroun laid claim to the Bakassi Peninsula, Nigeria’s Head of State, General Sani Abacha quickly stationed troops of the Nigerian Army there. He later granted Bakassi a Local Government status.

    Abacha rightly protected Bakassi as a Nigerian territory until his death on June 8, 1998.

    We later had a president (Chief Olusegun Obasanjo) who ceded Bakassi to Cameroun because he reportedly wanted to be the first Nigerian leader to win the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. Such inanity!

    President Goodluck Jonathan (as he then was) officially handed over the peninsula to Cameroun in 2012 in compliance with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgement.

    Historically, Bakassi was always a Nigerian territory. Nigeria as a sovereign nation shouldn’t have rushed to bow to the controversial judgement. Countries around the world have flouted ICJ judgements, and heavens did not fall. The option of appealing or flouting that contentious judgement was never explored by the Nigerian government!

    Today, Bakassi people are treated as inferior citizens in a strange land called Cameroun. They are killed and tortured with reckless abandon. It is glaring that the Cameroonian government led by veteran dictator, Mr. Paul Biya, lusts for Bakassi’s huge reserve of crude oil; Bakassi people are still seen as Nigerians who must be wiped away from the face of the earth.

    The Cameroonian forces sometimes encroach Nigerian territories and wreak havoc on lives and properties. Must the Camerounian forces and militants invade Abuja before the Nigerian government act?

    It is late, but still possible for the Nigerian government to revisit the Bakassi issue. In the meantime, Bakassi people should leave the area in droves and settle in Nigerian territories. They are considered irrelevant in Cameroun. Biya’s country needs Bakassi’s oil, not Bakassi people.

    Abacha’s corruption and human rights record is poor, but during his regime, Nigeria attained unprecedented economic achievements. Nigeria’s territorial safety was uncompromised. His investment in sports earned Nigeria laurels in international tournaments. No administration has been able to surpass the record. Abacha was neither a saint nor villain.

    At least, he did not donate Bakassi to Cameroun for a Nobel Peace Prize that will never come!

     

    • Ofonime Honesty, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

  • INEC confirms electoral materials hijack in 4 C/River councils

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Cross River has confirmed the hijack of electoral materials in four local government areas of the state.

    The local government areas are: Abi, Bakassi, Obubra and Etung.

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr Frankland Briyai, confirmed the development shortly after monitoring the voting process at some polling units in Calabar Municipality and Calabar South.

    He said that report of hijack at Yakurr Local Government Area of the state was yet to be confirmed, noting that the commission would record zero scores in all areas where materials were hijacked.

    “We have had cases of hijack of materials today. I got a call on hijack of materials in Abi, Bakassi, Obubra and Etung Local Government Areas.

    “In Yakurr Local Government Area, I got a call concerning hijack of materials but I am yet to confirm that.

    “I have said it before, if they deliberately refuse to make use of the card reader by hijacking electoral materials, the affected areas will score zero.

    “Every Cross Riverian and politician is aware of this.’’

    He, however, expressed satisfaction with high turnout of voters in some areas and applauded voters for their peaceful conduct during accreditation and voting.

    “The security agents were doing their work accordingly in all the areas we visited and I must commend them for that,’’ he said. (NAN)

  • No faction in Bakassi APC, says Ita-Giwa

    Political leader of the Bakassi people of Cross River State and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, says there is no faction in the party in the local government.

    Speaking during the commissioning of the chapter secretariat as well as the inauguration of the chapter and ward executives of the party in Bakassi local government area, Ita-Giwa said the party was united to help President Muhammadu Buhari to succeed, so as to help resettle the people once and for all.

    Her words, “We also had to emphasize that Bakassi is not in any faction. In all the years of our doing elections in the party, we have never had parallel structures or factions. Yes, we do have misunderstandings, but we always come around, reconcile and come together because of the paramount interest, which are the people of Bakassi; but not to the extent of having two parallel structures. I don’t believe in that. I am too old to believe in parallel structures or factions. Bakassi is neutral. I am focused on APC winning elections. My mind is connected to Buhari winning the election so that they can come and resettle Bakassi.

    “We are a peculiar local government. We are not like every local government in Nigeria. We are a local government with very profound problems, that up till now, how many years ago that we were ceded without a referendum, we are still homeless, still in refugee camps, having babies and dying in camps. Until now we have not been relocated to where we call our home. To where is conducive to our way and style of living and means of livelihood. Up till now, Nigeria has continued to trample on the people of Bakassi and we are saying that enough is enough. We came to APC so we can help solidify APC and when we do that and the president wins election; the president would be able to resettle the Bakassi people very well.

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    “We are qualified to vote as Nigerians. We went to Dayspring on our own without the support of government and got our voters’ cards to be able to vote as Nigerians. Even then, they still went to court to question the legality of that process and we thank God that INEC stood their grounds and won the case. Today Dayspring is an area where you are qualified to vote and be voted for. Under no circumstance should people continue to refer to Bakassi in numbers. We are not numbers. We have names. All the ten wards have names. We have identities.

    “We have our land, Dayspring. Let them take us there. We don’t need resettlement camps. We need to go to our natural place of abode so people have their traditional, political and religious lives as the case may be. That is why we are here to make that case, which is that they should leave us out of your faction issue. We have issues that are more profound than political factions.”

  • Putting Cross River on global cocoa processing league

    In line with several of his campaign pronouncements in the run up to the 2015 governorship election, Governor Ben Ayade has spared no effort in crystallizing his dreams, turning his industrialization vision into reality.  From the creeks of Bakassi, through the rainforest of Akamkpa and down to the hills and mountains of Obudu, Ayade has redefined governance through industrial revolution.

    Addressing a gathering of elders, council of traditional rulers, farmers and youths of Ikom back in 2015 while on a campaign train, Ayade had in an impassioned tone, provoked tears from his attentive audience when he swore before them to alter their fortunes positively as a cocoa producing zone if only they could entrust him with their votes.

    Barely three years after extracting that trust, and with the attendant promise of establishing a cocoa processing plant to create a value chain for cocoa production, it could be said with all boldness and certitude that Governor Ben Ayade has indeed delivered on his promise.

    Using the intellectual capital model or better still, what the governor has rechristened ‘intellectual money’, which is based on Other People’s Money (OPM), Ayade has been on windfall of industrialization across the state.

    At a recent inspection visit to the cocoa processing plant nearing completion at Ikom, Central Senatorial District, a multi-billionaire naira plant, stands a howling justification of what is now native to the people as Governor Ayade’s theory of intellectual money. The establishment of a cocoa processing mill by Ayade is no doubt a jinx breaker as well as the achievement of what hitherto was thought to be improbable in this part of the world.

    With Cross River cocoa adjudged as one of the finest in terms of quality in Nigeria, there was no other way to bring value addition to cocoa production in the state than Ayade’s effort to establish a multi-billion naira cocoa processing in Ikom.

    The Ikom cocoa project, when commissioned, will launch Cross River into the global cocoa hub in the world.

    Ayade says his intention is to revive cocoa as the mainstay of the economy of the people of the senatorial district in particular and Cross River in general.

    Essentially, cocoa farming has been money a spinner to the people of the senatorial district in the past.  Having again put a marker down, Ayade has clearly demonstrated that intellect can be used to fill the gap where physical money is unavailable. This principle is tailor made for Cross River considering the rapid economic and infrastructural development of the state under him in the last three years.

    For a cash strapped economy like Cross River State, coupled with a near zero allocations from the federation account, without intellectual money, building the calibre of industries and infrastructural projects the governor has accomplished in the last three years would have been a near impossibility or a mere wishful thinking.

    Impressed by the level of work at the cocoa processing plant, Ayade praised contractors handling the project and expressed optimism that the plant would be ready soon for production.

    “I am very impressed; knowing the enormity of work done, I’m really impressed. From what I have seen, the contractors deserve excellent pats on the back. This is what we call commitment and consistency.

    “I just want to tell a very short story, this is a story of a very great ambition ruling by motion without logic, no money but intellectual money; that is what I applied here”.

    The Ikom cocoa processing plant will process 30,000 tonnes of cocoa per annum. With the plant, Ayade has scored another first after establishing Africa’s first automated rice seeds and seedling factory.

    The plant is the first of its kind in Africa that will process cocoa beans to chocolate.

    For a governor who is focused on industrializing his state, the plant holds a lot of economic and employment future for the people of the state in line with Professor Ayade’s determination to decouple the state’s economy from over dependence on federal allocations.

    Hear Ayade: “This is the spirit of intellectual money and Cross River ultimately will be proud that I knew where I was going from the beginning. I am following an agenda that at the end of my eight years in office, when every single citizen of the state remembers my days, he or she will say this young man had a great vision.

    “For all the years gone by Cross River has been producing cocoa for other states to bear the name because we did not have an off-take mechanism, we did not have a programme by government to buy off the cocoa at good rates. So, outsiders used to come in and buy the cocoa from us and grade it as cocoa from their own state.”

    The plant, which will soon be operational, offers cocoa farmers in the state the opportunity, platform and industry to process their own cocoa, giving a premium value for money.

    “A cocoa house is going to be built so that once anyone owns a cocoa farm, all they need to do is just go to the cocoa house, collect money during harvest and the government will take their cocoa. With this arrangement, cocoa farmers in the state will have   money for their product and don’t have to go to bank to get a loan.”

    In his quest to bequeath an ultra-modern Ikom cocoa processing plant to Cross River, Ayade’s government has had to turn to Germany and Switzerland for the latest technology in cocoa processing.

     

    • Ita writes from Calabar, Cross River State.

  • Police arrest female suicide bomber in Maiduguri

    The Borno Police Command on Tuesday confirmed the arrest of a female suicide bomber at the Bakassi Internally Displaced Persons ( IDPs ) camp in Maiduguri.

    According to a statement by Edet Okon, Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), in Maiduguri, the suicide bomber was arrested by men of the Explosive Ordinance Disposal ( EOD ) team, on Tuesday at about 6: 50 a.m. while lurking around the Internally Displaced Persons  ( IDPs ) camp.

    He said that policemen condoned off the area, diffused the bomb and apprehended the suspect.

    The police spokesman added that the suspect is in police custody.

    Okon said: “on Tuesday, at about 6:50 a.m.,  a female suicide bomber was sighted behind Bakassi IDP camp in Maiduguri metropolis.

    “On sighting the bomber, conventional policemen alongside the EOD team swung into action and cordoned the area, to prevent escape of the bomber into the city.

    “The suspect, one Zara Idriss was rendered safe, arrested and is now in custody”.

    Okon called on members of the public to go about their normal activities without fear and to report any suspicious movement in their localities to security agencies.

    He reiterated the command’s commitments to protect lives and property in the state.

    NAN

  • Ita-Giwa hails judgment on Bakassi

    Former Presidential Adviser Senator Florence Ita-Giwa has hailed the Supreme Court’s judgment, urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to delineate constituencies for Bakassi in Cross River State.

    Speaking with The Nation in Calabar yesterday, the Bakassi leader said with the judgment, the Federal Government should speed the development of Dayspring 1, Dayspring 2 and Qua islands.

    She called for three more wards to the existing 10, and two constituencies for Dayspring; Riverine and Mainland.

    She said: “With this judgment, I rest my case. I stand vindicated on this issue. I thank God it has ended. I will not relent until my people are fully resettled. While we wait for details of the judgment, the important thing for us is to sit down and cooperate with INEC to do the needful. We should stop politicising the issue.  Right now, there is need for relevant stakeholders to sit down and work with INEC.

    “We should set aside personal political ambitions and work together. The judgment is not about anyone losing or winning but to come together and work for the benefit of all. I stand by my petition in the Efiok Cobham Plight of the People of Bakassi report that three wards be added to the existing 10 in Dayspring.

    “Let us cooperate with INEC so the people would not be disenfranchised. My joy is that all elections conducted in Dayspring so far remain valid as per the judgment. The Bakassi people should be treated equally as all other Nigerians. If we have sincerity of purpose, we should all come together to do the needful for the sake of the people.