ICJ Judgement: No Land Will Be Ceded To Cameroon – Gov Otu

Cross River State governor, Bassey Otu, has vowed not to allow any piece of land to be ceded to neighbouring Cameroon under the guise of fulfilling the implementation of 2002 International Court of Justice (ICJ) Judgement.

Otu spoke yesterday in Calabar at the end of a public hearing organised by House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee to investigate attempt to cede over 10,000 sq km of Nigerian land to Cameroon.

Represented by his chief of staff, Mr Emmanuel Ironbar, the governor said the state was still nursing wounds from the loss of Bakassi and its 76 oil wells which he believes can still be revisited.

He charged the committee to invite relevant stakeholders involved in the loss of the oil-rich peninsula to get to the root of the matter.

The state chief executive hailed the House of Representatives for setting up the Adhoc committee to investigate the disputed borders in Danare and Biajua communities in Boki local government area of the state.

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He said that the visit of committee members to disputed pillars 113A and 114 in Boki communities, was a welcome development stressing that the visit will certainly assist the lawmakers to put up painstaking reports.

Earlier, the chairman of the House Committee on Public Hearing, Hon. Beni Lar, said, “Our mission is to carry out the mandate of the House of Representatives which passed a resolution on Wednesday July 5,  2023 on the need to investigate the remote and recent circumstances leading to the looming international boundary dispute between Nigeria  and Cameroon.

He said what the committee is doing is to unravel the circumstances that led to the non-traceability and/displacement of a very vital international pillar 113A in the demarcation of the border between Nigeria and the Cameroon.

He stressed that the border issue was not only limited to Bajua and Danare axis in Boki LGA of Cross River, but  also extends to  Michigan LGA area of Adamawa State.

“We are here to visit the points of turmoil, which we did today before this session began. Hold a public hearing, which is what we are doing right now and thereafter request for memoranda on proper position of affected communities, and thereafter, draw agreement and communique that will inform our final report back to the Federal Parliament,” she said.

Reacting to the issue, the chiefs and stakeholders of Biajua and Danare communities expressed shock over the insensitivity of federal government agencies to border issues and the plight of the communities.

In his remarks, a former chairman of Boki council, Kingsley Mbia, said challenges of the border communities in the LGA began some years ago when Cameroon started the search for the disputed pillar 113A and urged the federal government not to allow Cameroon take over the disputed land.