The attention of the peace and development loving Ikang Joint Assembly, Bakassi Local Government Area has been drawn to the selfish and greed-driven Arise TV interview granted by Barr. Okoi Obono Obla, Arise TV interview granted by Senator Florence Ita Giwa, petition requesting the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to delist Bakassi from the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria and their agitation for unceded part of the erstwhile Bakassi in Dayspring 1, 2 and Kwa Island under the name of “Indigenous Displaced People of Bakassi”.
The underlying upshot of this wicked agitation is perpetuation of underdevelopment and backwardness in Bakassi Local Government as presently constituted. This same people whose style of administration has always been, collection of Federal Allocation and sharing same in a Leader’s sitting room without consideration for infrastructural and human capital development have consistently defrauded Bakassi for many years without anything to show until now that Bakassi is greeted with practical and evidential development.
Now development committed and determined administration is on the saddle to change such narratives that can best describe the agitators’ many years era as benighted. And because of that, Bakassi should be delisted from the Nigerian Constitution. Why? It is even more wicked that the front-liner in this agitation, Hon. Iyadim Amboni Iyadim who left office as Chairman of Bakassi less than 1 year ago, is now crying wolf.
THE UNCEDED PART OF ERSTWHILE BAKASSI QUESTION
Ine Inua Esighi which the agitators try to rename was captured in the Cross River State Edict No. 1 of 1996 and listed as the 8th Village under Esighi Clan in Akpabuyo Local Government. Even when Bakassi was created later in 1996, Ine Inua Esighi in the so-called Dayspring was still not under the former Bakassi Local Government Area.
The people of Esighi till today, are collecting royalties for Dayspring with receipts to show and strengthen their position. We have gazetted maps showing names of the villages that belong to Esighi and Ikang clans before the arrival of the plunderers. What do they have to show that Dayspring, so called, is the unceded part of former Bakassi?
The plan and design to forcefully and cunningly annex these islands that belong to the people of Esighi together with their call for relocation of a fully established Local Government Administration with a functional Local Government Secretariat to where their duplicity will continue thriving, is all the more very discomfiting. The huge benefit Bakassi Deep Sea Port Project is bringing to Bakassi, Cross River State and beyond does not sit well with them.
PERTINENT QUESTIONS
Without mincing words, Senator Florence Ita Giwa was a “particeps crimini” in all the events, talks and negotiations that culminated in the heartless ceding of Bakassi Peninsula to the Republic of Cameroon. And the questions are:
Senator Florence Ita Giwa having been a law maker, Presidential Aid and many more in the Government that supervised the ceding of Bakassi Peninsula to the Republic of Cameroon, why didn’t she achieve all her agitations when she had the chance to effortlessly get them all?
Given all Senator Florence Ita Giwa’s various appointments and positions vis-à-vis her inclinations as an activist and Dayspring pressure group leader, how many people did she empower to build even one house in Atabong in justification of their agitation for a place of their own as displaced people who left their homes in Cameroon?
At what point did these places she is strongly agitating for become unceded part as edict no 1 of 1996 has never mentioned Dayspring or any island to be a village under any place other than Ine Inua Esighi in Esighi clan?
Calling the Federal Government to delist or delete Bakassi from the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria by these set of selfish antagonists, reminds us of Solomon’s judgment that revealed the true owner of the child that two mothers claimed, 1 Kings 3:16-28.
It was in an attempt to maintain its structure as a sovereign nation that the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) decided to assist these strangers to return and join real indigenous people of Bakassi who are now busy developing their Local Government and are being applauded for it. Cross River State Government even decided to make them comfortable by maintaining the name Bakassi in the adjustment of the boundaries between Akpabuyo and former Bakassi through the Cross River State Law No. 7 of 2007. As such, the name Bakassi cannot be delisted from the constitution as it remains part and parcel of Cross River State, having been a duly and validly passed law of Cross River State.
We wish to restate that Dayspring 1, 2 and Kwa Island were never part of the erstwhile Bakassi Peninsula and/or part of the defunct Bakassi communities now under the jurisdiction of the Cameroon Republic by virtue of the ICJ judgment of 2002. These Islands can therefore not be said to be unceded parts of the former Bakassi Local Government. Even when the Supreme Court Judgment made it clear that there was no unceded part of Bakassi as it was ceded in its ENTIRETY, these dare devil liers keep touting and pushing their deceitful narrative that Dayspring 1, 2 and Kwa Island are their unceded part of the erstwhile Bakassi.
These people are dangerously steep in lies. This is how they flew the kite and propaganda that the Governor had given them Dayspring 1, 2 and Kwa Island for their Local Government and that Ikang people must move to Akpabuyo where they belong and leave them alone. On the basis of this cheap propaganda, they filed strangers to impersonate landlords of the Deep Sea Port Project and collected royalties during the groundbreaking ceremony of the Bakassi Deep Sea Port in Esighi.
During an interface with the Governor, His Excellency made it categorically clear that Bakassi is one, that is, one indivisible people. But the impersonators keep undermining the policies of Government just because their selfish interest is not fertilized.
The Green Tree Agreement gave them the option of staying in Cameroon or coming to Nigeria. So, if they want to go back to their ancestral communities now in Cameroon, they don’t need to ask for delisting of Bakassi from the 744 Local Government Areas in Nigeria. We are comfortable with the authentic Bakassi indigenes now in power and clearing the underdevelopment mess they piled up for many years.
Greed, duplicity and loss of power to share Bakassi Local Government allocation meant for meaningful development is eating them up.
