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LequteMan
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Nigeria- Tension is mounting and there is total confusion as citizens of Cross River raised alarm over the ceding of their oil rich communities to Cameroon in the recent demarcation exercise with Nigeria.
According to The Guardian, the communities for some months been raising the alarm and drawing Federal Government's attention to the fact that eight local government areas of several communities in the state would be ceded to Cameroon if the demarcation of Nigeria-Cameroon boundary was done without recourse to locating pillar 113A by representatives of Cameroon/Nigeria Mixed Commission."
In a petition written to the state governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, the people of Danare and BIajua in Boki LGA alleged that new boundaries are being created by some of the surveyors charged with the responsibility of providing correct boundaries in communities bordering Nigeria and Cameroon.
They want the surveyors to stop creating new boundaries, saying "as the people could not locate 113A and 114 A, Nigeria will suffer loss of not only thousands of kiolmetres of cash crop farms, more than 20 Nigerian communities will be ceded to Cameroon. In the history of the border between Nigeria and Cameroon, Danare 1 is a Nigerian community at the border between Nigeria and Cameroon".
However, the State's Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Mr. Atta Ochinke, in a reaction, dispelled rumour of Nigeria or Cameroon losing any territory.
"The demarcation that is going on there is to re-establish the Anglo German boundary line which the World Court adopted as the boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon. It is not a new line and it is not cutting any territory of Nigeria into Cameroon. The action is not demarcating any new territory, but re-establishing a boundary line that has existed for over a hundred years."
According to him, "the communities were expressing anxiety because these are communities that are virtually right on the boundary line. The communities both on the Nigerian and Cameroon sides are actually one community, one people and they have very little respect to the boundary line in the way they live their lives. But, of course, the boundary line is something they have always known and since the boundary line is so close to the communities. None of those communities are ignorant of where the boundary line is"
Also Senate Leader, Chief Victor Ndoma-Egba, representing Central Senatorial district of Cross River State, was uncomfortable and took the matter to the floor of the senate for deliberation which attracted parties including the Surveyor General of the Federation, Professor Peter Nwilo, the Attorney General, Mr. Mohammed Adoke and others.
But the people of the communities were terrified by comments of the Surveyor General and the member representing Etung/Obubra Federal Constituencies in the House of Representative, Mr. John Owan-Enoh, who in strong words, said that no community in Cross River was threatened by loss of territory to Cameroon even when pillar 113A had not been found and the final outcome of the public hearing on the matter was still pending
Speaking on behalf of the Boki people, a Community Leader in Danare and former member representing Boki 1 in the State House of Assembly, Mr. Cletus Obun said, "for Owan-Enoh the representative of Etung/Obubra in the Federal House of Representatives and the Attorney General and Surveyor General of the Federation to say that there is no dispute is treasonable. It is my take that the Surveyor General of the Federation should be tried for treason.
According to him, pillars are meant to indicate geographic features and must not be used as a boundary line.
"If the Nigerian government does not stop its officials like this Surveyor General who are making unguided comments about the judgement they seem not to understand or are bent on misinterpreting, we will lose not just Bakassi but two oil wells. Nigerians in that area (Danare/Biajua) will resist this and will prepare to declare a republic of its own under extant international treaty to which Nigeria is a signatory. There are several declarations by the United Nations that make it possible for us and since Nigeria is bent on giving us to Cameroon and we don't want to become Cameroonians, we are free under extant UN declarations to proclaim a sovereign country of our own and that is the 'Ambasonia Republic'.
He stated further that, "we are saying this so that Nigeria and the international community will take notice of what is about to happen to us. We are about to be handed over to Cameroon without a referendum or plebiscite against the UN declaration on the right of indigenous people. The declaration has 21 articles bleeding with the rights of indigenous people on where they can belong. By this singular action, Nigeria is again about to make us stateless as they have done to the people of Bakassi down the peninsular. The Boki people of this area will resist it.
#Nigeria #Cameroon #Bakassi #CrossRiver #Guardian
According to The Guardian, the communities for some months been raising the alarm and drawing Federal Government's attention to the fact that eight local government areas of several communities in the state would be ceded to Cameroon if the demarcation of Nigeria-Cameroon boundary was done without recourse to locating pillar 113A by representatives of Cameroon/Nigeria Mixed Commission."
In a petition written to the state governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, the people of Danare and BIajua in Boki LGA alleged that new boundaries are being created by some of the surveyors charged with the responsibility of providing correct boundaries in communities bordering Nigeria and Cameroon.
They want the surveyors to stop creating new boundaries, saying "as the people could not locate 113A and 114 A, Nigeria will suffer loss of not only thousands of kiolmetres of cash crop farms, more than 20 Nigerian communities will be ceded to Cameroon. In the history of the border between Nigeria and Cameroon, Danare 1 is a Nigerian community at the border between Nigeria and Cameroon".
However, the State's Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Mr. Atta Ochinke, in a reaction, dispelled rumour of Nigeria or Cameroon losing any territory.
"The demarcation that is going on there is to re-establish the Anglo German boundary line which the World Court adopted as the boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon. It is not a new line and it is not cutting any territory of Nigeria into Cameroon. The action is not demarcating any new territory, but re-establishing a boundary line that has existed for over a hundred years."
According to him, "the communities were expressing anxiety because these are communities that are virtually right on the boundary line. The communities both on the Nigerian and Cameroon sides are actually one community, one people and they have very little respect to the boundary line in the way they live their lives. But, of course, the boundary line is something they have always known and since the boundary line is so close to the communities. None of those communities are ignorant of where the boundary line is"
Also Senate Leader, Chief Victor Ndoma-Egba, representing Central Senatorial district of Cross River State, was uncomfortable and took the matter to the floor of the senate for deliberation which attracted parties including the Surveyor General of the Federation, Professor Peter Nwilo, the Attorney General, Mr. Mohammed Adoke and others.
But the people of the communities were terrified by comments of the Surveyor General and the member representing Etung/Obubra Federal Constituencies in the House of Representative, Mr. John Owan-Enoh, who in strong words, said that no community in Cross River was threatened by loss of territory to Cameroon even when pillar 113A had not been found and the final outcome of the public hearing on the matter was still pending
Speaking on behalf of the Boki people, a Community Leader in Danare and former member representing Boki 1 in the State House of Assembly, Mr. Cletus Obun said, "for Owan-Enoh the representative of Etung/Obubra in the Federal House of Representatives and the Attorney General and Surveyor General of the Federation to say that there is no dispute is treasonable. It is my take that the Surveyor General of the Federation should be tried for treason.
According to him, pillars are meant to indicate geographic features and must not be used as a boundary line.
"If the Nigerian government does not stop its officials like this Surveyor General who are making unguided comments about the judgement they seem not to understand or are bent on misinterpreting, we will lose not just Bakassi but two oil wells. Nigerians in that area (Danare/Biajua) will resist this and will prepare to declare a republic of its own under extant international treaty to which Nigeria is a signatory. There are several declarations by the United Nations that make it possible for us and since Nigeria is bent on giving us to Cameroon and we don't want to become Cameroonians, we are free under extant UN declarations to proclaim a sovereign country of our own and that is the 'Ambasonia Republic'.
He stated further that, "we are saying this so that Nigeria and the international community will take notice of what is about to happen to us. We are about to be handed over to Cameroon without a referendum or plebiscite against the UN declaration on the right of indigenous people. The declaration has 21 articles bleeding with the rights of indigenous people on where they can belong. By this singular action, Nigeria is again about to make us stateless as they have done to the people of Bakassi down the peninsular. The Boki people of this area will resist it.
#Nigeria #Cameroon #Bakassi #CrossRiver #Guardian
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