Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Bakassi, Cross River State have accused Nigerian soldiers drafted to Ikang Community for “Operation Still Water” of harassing and intimidating them.
The IDPs who are predominantly fishermen, staged a peaceful protest from Ikot Effiom Obutong Re-settlement Camp and to Ikang Bakassi Fishing Port to draw public attention to their plight.
The protesters who came out in hundreds expressed their frustration over what they described as intimidation and harassment by the troops.
Among the allegations levelled against the soldiers included frequent flogging of fishermen for being in possession of petroleum product which the IDPs used to power their fishing boats.
While narrating their ordeal, the general secretary, IDPs Bakassi Re-settlement Camp, Mr. Linus Asuquo Essien, who spoke on behalf of the protesters stated that the returnees were going through economic hardship as a result of not being allowed by soldiers to buy petrol for their fishing boats.
“Our children can no longer go to school. On daily basis our community residents who are predominantly fishermen have at regular intervals been arrested and locked up in the Cameroon republic prisons.
“Unfortunately none of our leaders in the house of parliament or in authorities has bothered to wade into the matter.
“We now go through hunger and starvation in the IDP camp due to our constant stay at home. Our major occupation is fishing, unfortunately, we have been barred by the soldiers from going to fish.
“We have over a hundred fishermen who had been arrested by the Cameroon gerdams and locked up in their prisons just because they were engaged in fishing.
“This is why we are calling on the federal government, United Nations to come to our aide before we perish here. Cameroonians said we are strangers. In Nigeria, our soldiers accused us of engaging in bunkering. Where do we go from here?” he queried.
Also speaking, the secretary general, Ikang Clan Council, Chief Essien Eyo, wondered why a community which had 12 out of the 14 villages making up the community reside basically in the riverine area would be barred from carrying on their fishing activities.
The traditional ruler maintained that things were so bad that several fishing boats belonging to the fishermen had been burnt down to ashes.
Other allegations levelled against the military personnel in Ikang included extortion, unnecessary intimidation and harassment of internally displaced persons who were predominantly fishermen.
The IDPs who came out in hundreds with placards, with different inscriptions boldly written, “Enough is enough,” “We are now slaves in our own land,” “Soldiers have inflicted us with poverty.”
The IDPs called on the federal government and international communities to look into the inhuman treatment meted on to them before things go out of hands.
“In the last 10 months we haven’t seen electricity. Yet we pay taxes. In the Cameroon, we are not allowed to fish. In our own country where our oil wells were ceded to the neighbouring Cameroon we are like slaves.
“We have no food to eat, our kids have dropped out from school. Our boats are parked because we lack petrol to power our boats for fishing.
“They accused us of engaging in oil bunkering, even when there are no pipelines in Bakassi. The NNPC water fuel station that used to sell petroleum product to us now lies fallow because we are not allowed to buy petrol for fishing” he alleged.
When contacted the army public relations officer, Capt. Dorcas Aluko, stated that she was attending a course outside the state and could comment on the issue at a moment.
However military sources in Calabar denied the allegations saying that fishermen were using their fishing boats to smuggle petroleum product to neighbouring Cameroon Republic.
